Adopt ‘heightened’ vigilance on reports of Russia-linked hacks over Ukraine aid: CSE centre
Global News
In particular, the cyber agency is warning Canadian organizations to be on their guard given reports of distributed denial of service attacks from Russian-linked actors.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security is warning Canadian defence and critical infrastructure providers to “adopt a heightened state of vigilance” amid reports of Russian-linked cyber attacks targeting governments supporting Ukraine, Global News has learned.
“The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) is aware of reporting regarding an increase in Russian state-aligned hacktivist groups seeking to compromise, or disrupt Ukrainian-aligned allies, in response to their continued support of the Government of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the Communications Security Establishment said in a statement Thursday evening.
“The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre), part of the CSE, is reminding the Canadian cyber security community — especially critical infrastructure and defence industry network defenders — to adopt a heightened state of vigilance, and to bolster their awareness of and protection against malicious cyber threats.”
In particular, the cyber agency is warning Canadian organizations to be on their guard given reports of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
The Cyber Centre sent a technical alert about the reported attacks to critical partners on Thursday afternoon, Global News has learned.
The move comes as Russian hackers appear to be targeting Western governments who agreed to supply tanks to Ukraine this week — a move Moscow has publicly stated would be viewed as an escalation of the conflict.
Russian activist hackers knocked several German websites offline on Wednesday in what is widely perceived as a response to Berlin’s decision to send tanks to Ukraine.
The German government had been blocking Western allied efforts to send Leopard 2 tanks supplied by Germany, finally standing down after some countries vowed to go ahead with shipments even if their requests were denied.