Five Eyes warn of Russian cyberattacks on critical infrastructure

A joint cybersecurity advisory issued by members of the Five Eyes alliance warns of increased attacks on critical infrastructure from Russia.

The Five Eyes alliance consists of the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Members cooperate in signals intelligence.

Canadian academic Srdjan Vucetic believes the Five Eyes’ originated from Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech in 1946, in which the British PM warned of open conflict with the Soviet Union unless the...

21 April 2022 | Legislation & Government

Nokia joins Ericsson in exiting Russia

Nokia has announced it’s exiting Russia just a day after rival Ericsson reported an indefinite suspension of its operations in the country.

“It has been clear for Nokia since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine that continuing our presence in Russia would not be possible,” wrote the company in a statement.

Over the last few weeks, Nokia suspended deliveries to Russia, stopped new business, and began moving its R&D activities out of the country. Today’s...

12 April 2022 | Networks

Ericsson announces ‘indefinite suspension’ of its Russian business

Ericsson has announced an “indefinite suspension” of its business in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The uncovering of further war crimes by Russian forces in areas like Bucha and Irpin has led to additional sanctions from much of the international community. Sweden-based Ericsson says the EU’s increased sanctions played a part in its decision.

In a statement, Ericsson wrote:

“In the light of recent events and of European Union...

11 April 2022 | Networks

US disrupts large Russian botnet ‘before it could be used’

The US has disrupted a large global botnet operated by Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland made the announcement on Wednesday.

“Fortunately, we were able to disrupt this botnet before it could be used. Thanks to our close work with international partners, we were able to detect the infection of thousands of network hardware devices,” said Garland.

“We were then able to disable the GRU’s control over those...

7 April 2022 | Legislation & Government

Viasat’s satellites in Europe were taken offline by Kremlin-associated malware

A satellite broadband outage impacting thousands of customers in Ukraine and across Europe was the result of malware linked to the Russian government.

The outage occurred on 24 February 2022. That date has sadly gone down in history as the day Russia decided to launch its invasion of Ukraine—causing tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, displacing around 6.5 million people within the country, and leading to an estimated 4.1 million refugees.

Given the timing, the...

1 April 2022 | Broadband

US warns a Russian cyberattack could trigger a NATO response

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has warned that a Russian cyberattack on a NATO ally could trigger a collective response.

"We could see circumstances in which a collective response by the alliance to a cyberattack would be called by an ally," said Sullivan. "That is absolutely something where we and other countries could bring capabilities to help a country defend itself and respond."

Sullivan made the warning a day after President Biden said that...

23 March 2022 | Legislation & Government

China: Attacks from US IP addresses are using resources to target Russia

According to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), a large number of cyberattacks the country has received from US IP addresses are now using compromised resources to target Russia.

In a post on the CAC’s website, the agency wrote:

“Since late February, my country’s internet has been continuously attacked by overseas cyberattacks.

Overseas organizations controlled computers in China through attacks, and then carried out cyberattacks on Russia,...

14 March 2022 | Security

Truphone part-owner Roman Abramovich among sanctioned oligarchs

Truphone part-owner Roman Abramovich is among the latest Russian oligarchs to be sanctioned by the UK today.

Abramovich made the bulk of his wealth from selling assets following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The assets were acquired far below market value in Russia's controversial loans-for-shares privatisation initiative.

Between 2000-2008, Abramovich was the governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. He is allegedly a confidant of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin...

10 March 2022 | Legislation & Government

Internet backbone provider Lumen joins exodus of Russia

Lumen, a major internet backbone provider, has announced that it will be joining the exodus of Russia.

Russia has found itself increasingly isolated on the world stage after its decision to illegally invade Ukraine—including carrying out heinous acts that are now being investigated as likely war crimes.

The pariah state has already been cut off from global payment systems. Meanwhile, a growing number of companies have taken independent decisions to halt or limit...

9 March 2022 | Broadband

SpaceX sends more Starlink terminals to Ukraine but experts warn of targeting

SpaceX is sending another batch of Starlink terminals to Ukraine but experts have warned about potential targeting.

Ukraine has suffered intermittent connectivity as it defends itself from Russia’s invasion of the country. Some of the outages have been the result of damage to telecoms infrastructure itself, while others due to wider power outages.

Within the past few hours, NetBlocks – which tracks network disruptions and shutdowns – posted a particularly...

7 March 2022 | Broadband