Russian Government Warns Business Of US Cyber Attack

The Russian government has issued a cyber security warning to local organisations they say are at risk of US reprisals for the latest SolarWinds assaults. 

The warning comes from the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents (NKTsKI), an agency created in 2018 by KGB successor the Federal Security Service (FSB). It said that the US government had threatened to carry out retaliatory attacks on Russian critical infrastructure following the large-scale cyber espionage campaign which the Kremlin has waged on US government and other organisations in the past year.

The fifteen-point advisory issued by NKTsKI recommends updating incident response plans, correctly configuring security tools, training users on how to spot phishing, avoiding third-party DNS servers and using multi-factor authentication. Also,application controls, firewalls, updated passwords, email security and prompt patching.

The US accused  Russia for the SolarWinds attacks, after it emerged that Kremlin-sponsored operatives had performed a major spying operation on government departments including the Department of Justice, the State Department and the Treasury. The White House Press Secretary has said the US reserves the right to “respond at a time and manner of our choosing to any cyber-attack.” 

President Biden now has the delicate task of seeking cooperation with Russia over arms treaties but a way to punish the Kremlin for this cyber-attack and other pressing issues.

Reports suggest he has given the intelligence community the task of investigating four key areas:

• The SolarWinds attack.

• Possible interference in the 2020 election.

• Efforts to muzzle Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

• A bounty program to pay Taliban fighters in Afghanistan for killing US troops.

The earliest awareness of the attack on the US was from the experts at the FireEye cybersecurity firm which found itself under attack from hackers it thought were working for Russia. Their investigation revealed that the same hackers were able to monitor internal email traffic at the US Treasury and Commerce departments and other departments. 

The hackers are thought to have used hacks that got into software updates released by the  SolarWinds IT company, which serves government customers across the executive branch, the military, and the intelligence services.

Reuters:         New York Times:      TheOpenSecurity:    Safe-Surf:       Infosecurity Magazine:

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