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

FCC: China Mobile, China Telecom, and Kaspersky ‘pose a threat to national security’

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has deemed China Mobile, China Telecom, and cybersecurity firm Kaspersky “a threat to national security”.

All three entities have been added to the FCC’s list of communications equipment and services that have been deemed a threat to national security.

Jessica Rosenworcel, Chairwoman of the FCC, said:

“Last year, for the first time, the FCC published a list of communications equipment and services that pose an...

28 March 2022 | Legislation & Government

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

British telecoms regulator Ofcom revokes RT’s broadcast license

Ofcom has revoked the broadcast license of Russian state news outlet RT “with immediate effect”.

UK broadcast laws require impartiality. Ofcom has 29 ongoing investigations into RT’s coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over concerns that it’s being used to push Kremlin propaganda.

“We consider the volume and potentially serious nature of the issues raised within such a short period to be of great concern – especially given RT’s compliance history,...

18 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

Russian space agency refuses to launch OneWeb satellites

Russian space agency Roscosmos has said that it won’t launch British OneWeb satellites, as was planned on Friday.

A Soyuz rocket carrying 36 of OneWeb’s satellites was due to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday. Following the global backlash against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that launch is now in question.

OneWeb is part-owned by the British government. With NATO put on high-alert following the invasion of a sovereign, democratic...

2 March 2022 | Broadband

Ukraine is using Starlink to maintain global connectivity

Ukraine is successfully using SpaceX’s satellite broadband system Starlink to maintain global connectivity as it defends itself from Russia.

Following a request from Ukraine’s vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for assistance, a batch of Starlink stations was delivered to the country yesterday:

https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1498392515262746630

And, it seems, Ukrainians are having success with the system to ensure the...

1 March 2022 | Broadband

Cyberattack targets Ukrainian gov websites amid Russia tensions

A large cyberattack that hit Ukrainian government websites told visitors to “be afraid and expect the worst”.

Ukrainian authorities and companies regularly face cyberattacks that are suspected to primarily originate from Russian hackers, whether state-sponsored or acting independently. Many cyberattacks target critical infrastructure such as the power grid.

"Ukrainian! All your personal data was uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed,...

14 January 2022 | Security