Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, stated that the U.S. quickly linked Tuesday’s attacks to Russian military intelligence officer officers.
The United States joined Britain in blaming GRU, the military intelligence agency of Russia, for the attacks on distributed denial-of service that occurred as tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalate.
Neuberger stated that the attacks, which took down websites of government agencies and some major banks, had “limited impact”, as officials in Ukraine were able quickly to get their systems up and running again.
She said that the Russians could be helping to prepare for disruptive activities that could lead to an invasion of Ukraine.
Neuberger stated that Russia could decide to invade Ukraine again. Neuberger added that they expect to see more destabilizing and destructive cyber activity. Neuberger also said that allies and partners have been closely working together to make sure that we are ready to respond to such behavior.
She stated that the U.S. blamed the Kremlin publicly because it was necessary to “call out the behavior fast.”
Neuberger stated that the global community must be ready to expose malicious cyber activity and hold those responsible for any disruptive or destructive cyber activity.
According to the British Foreign Office, the attack showed “continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty.” This is another example of Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine.
Neuberger stated that there is no intelligence suggesting that the U.S. will be the target of a cyberattack. However, that remains a concern given that the banking system doesn’t have the “cyber resilience.”
Officials in Ukraine called Tuesday’s denial of service attacks the worst ever seen in their country’s history. Although they disrupted internet banking and hampered some government-to–government communications, and they clearly caused panic, they weren’t particularly serious according to historic or global standards, said Roland Dobbins (top engineer for DDoS at cybersecurity firm Netscout).
Dobbins stated that DDoS attacks are most successful because of a lack of preparation by the defenders. He also said that commercial mitigation services meant to combat such attacks would have likely been able to stop Tuesday’s attacks.
