UK reports that Russian hackers are attacking Western key infrastructure

On Wednesday, UK government’s cyber defense organization issued a warning about a growing threat from hackers who support Russia and its conflict with Ukraine to Western essential national infrastructure.

Russian-aligned “hacktivists” have run generally non-lethal internet campaigns that have taken down or damaged well-known public websites. However, according to a warning from the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of the eavesdropping spy agency GCHQ, some of those organizations have been actively planning ways to cause greater physical harm.

The NCSC claimed that some people had expressed a desire to have a more disruptive and damaging impact on western key national infrastructure, especially in the UK.

“We expect these groups to look for opportunities to create such an impact, particularly if systems are poorly protected,” said the notice, which was made public at a two-day conference organized by the NCSC and GCHQ in Belfast.

Despite their ideological motivations and alignment with Russian state aims, such organisations are “not subject to formal state control,” according to the advisory.

This reduces their predictability, it stated.

A successful cyberattack on a vital piece of the country’s infrastructure, such the water or energy grids, may be extremely devastating and cause significant physical harm.

According to the NCSC advisory, such attacks are “unlikely” to be carried out by hacktivist groups “without external assistance,” but warned that they “may become more effective over time.” Such attacks normally rely for very high levels of technical expertise and resources.

But it’s possible that support is already in place.

A “Top Secret” U.S. intelligence document warning that a pro-Russian hacking outfit by the name of “Zarya” had compromised networks within Canada’s gas infrastructure was one of the dozens of highly classified U.S. intelligence papers that were recently exposed online.

The group presented screenshots to members of the Russian FSB as evidence that they were able to “increase valve pressure, disable alarms, and initiate an emergency shutdown of an unspecified gas distribution station,” according to the “Top Secret” document.

Previously, we reported that Russian cyber forces targeted NATO countries.