New reports of hacking campaigns associated with Russia’s war in Ukraine have emerged, with the stories focusing on one of the most obvious aspects of the invasion: cyberwarfare.

Many experts had predicted that Russia would launch cyberattacks in Ukraine to shut down the country’s main power systems like the electrical grid. While news of such major attacks has not yet emerged, reports of smaller-scale organized cybercrimes are beginning to materialize.

On 7th March, Google had stated that it had found widespread phishing attacks that sought to exploit the Polish military and Ukrainian officials.

Next-generation cybersecurity platform, Resecurity Inc. also unearthed evidence of a coordinated hacking operation that targeted U.S. companies that supply natural gas (a resource that is becoming increasingly valuable as Western sanctions clamp down on Russia’s energy exports). In both cases, the attacks can be tracked down to groups associated with Russia and its supporters.

Google-owned Threat Analysis Group reported that the phishing attacks sought to affect UkrNet, which is a Ukraine-based media firm, and Ukrainian and Polish government and military organizations.

Attacks were carried out by Russian threat actor Fancy Bear, and Belarusian outfit Ghostwriter. The former group is linked to Russian military intelligence agency GRU and was behind the Democratic email hacks in 2016.

Notably, the campaign that affected U.S. natural gas firms successfully gained access to approximately 100 computers belonging to former employees and employees.

As per sources, motives for this action are unknown, but Resecurity stated that the step was a mere “pre-positioning” strategy - hacking machines in a build-up to a larger cyber-attack operation of some sort.

The attacks had begun nearly two weeks before the Ukrainian invasion, as gaining access to U.S. gas suppliers would offer them plenty of scope for gaining geopolitical leverage.

As European nations have increasingly amped up their efforts to reduce their reliance on Russian natural gas using various economic sanctions, energy companies in the U.S have increased their supply, making the country the world’s largest provider of liquefied natural gas.

Source Credit –

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/8/22966892/ukraine-us-targeted-cyber-war-russia-invasion-google-phishing-energy