In the midst of rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which have seemingly reached a boiling point as Ukrainian governmental websites go down on Wednesday, the United Kingdom gathers firms for a roundtable discussion in the hope of thwarting a potential threat before it arises.
A report via NCSC, Britain's cybersecurity agency, provided by The Guardian reads: "While the NCSC is not aware of any current specific threats to U.K. organizations in relation to events in and around Ukraine, there has been an historical pattern of cyber-attacks on Ukraine with international consequences."
GCHQ head Jeremy Fleming spearheaded the meeting, underscoring every potential angle afforded via Russian cyberattacks in Europe. Those present included several key businesses and institutions, of which were denoted as "critical national infrastructure," according to The Guardian. These businesses range in sectors from health and food to transport and communication.
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The discussions were an attempt to accept the risks now growing as Russia eyes stay firmly set on Ukraine. Just last week, the intelligence agency GRU was supposedly involved in a cyberattack on two Ukrainian banks. As mentioned previously, the attacks have only increased with DDoS or denial of service, hacks now paralyzing various banking and governmental websites in Ukraine.
Fortunately, the United States and the U.K. are assisting with cybersecurity agencies to help end the conflict. An additional six European Union countries voiced their support in the matter on Tuesday, Feb. 22. The attacks may only worsen the less they are addressed.
Since 2014, Ukraine has been ground zero for several cyber-attacks. These most recent events were an attempt to disrupt customer services yet posed no real major threat that allowed officials via Britain's NCSC to interfere with any of its own cyber-activity. Likewise, the country's long history of being a target makes it knowledgeable in dealing with potential major threats, as seen in its handling of disengaged power supplies amid both 2015 and 2016.
On Wednesday, Feb. 23, Kyiv denotes yet another attack pinning on Russia. The DDoS attack saw the Ukrainian parliament, foreign ministry, and state security service websites all go down starting around 4 PM GMT.
Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, relays to Reuters: "The spread of the outages is similar but distinct from the recent DDOS attack targeting defense and banking platforms, with the latter not impacted in this instance."
The U.K. and all the many varying organizations held within it will have to remain prepared and ahead if caught in a Russian cyber attack.
