SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Cyber security experts say the U.S. has been fighting off Russian cyber attacks for years but could those attacks escalate because of the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict?
Though this invasion is being fought on the other side of the world, the ripple effect it may have on the security of other countries, including the United States, is being discussed by scholars and experts from around the U.S.
“We the United States, should of course take cyber security seriously. Russia is a very capable cyber actor, and it is far better to be prepared than caught by surprise,” said Melissa Griffith, a scholar with the Science, Technology & Innovation Program at the Wilson Center in D.C.
Just as Russia began its military attack on Ukraine Thursday, another attack on the country was also underway. Ukrainian government websites and related organizations were disrupted by data-wiping malware, infecting hundreds of computers.
Ukrainian officials are blaming Russia and now people are wondering if a similar cyberattack could happen in the United States.
“We’ve already seen a lot of attacks. We have a lot of corporations and government agents working on those things, preparing for them, preparing to counter them, even preparing some responses,” said Mikhail Alexseev, a Political Science Professor at San Diego State University.
Ukrainian government websites were temporarily off-line, and access to the internet was sporadic. The malware attack in Ukraine made websites unavailable by flooding them with junk data.
Reports say major Russian websites were also under attack, possibly in retaliation from the Ukrainians.
“I think it is reasonable for the United States to expect the type of intelligence gathering we’ve seen from Russia before, the likes of solar winds. We should of course, be very worried about unintended blowback,” Griffith said.
Griffith says being targeted and being affected by a cyberattack are very different. She believes it’s not productive for the U.S. to assume that at some point, Russia will try to cripple U.S power grids. Instead, Griffith says the U.S. should try and understand the real purpose behind the cyberattacks.
“The question lurking behind any Russian decision to carry out those types of cyberattacks against the United States in this context is, whether Russia’s goal is to keep us largely out of this conflict or deliberately draw us in,” said Griffith.
Reuters is reporting that now Ukrainian officials are asking its own underground hackers to help protect the country against Russian cyberattacks.
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