Cyber Armageddon

At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many parts of Europe have been cut off from the internet after it encountered massive “cyberattacks”.

Overview:

  • Military and cyber experts fear that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict would lead to cyberattacks, resulting in a “cyber Armageddon” with serious consequences for civilians in Ukraine and Russia, as well as the rest of the world, due to a spillover effect.
  • Following a “cyber event” on 24th February at Viasat, a US satellite operator, around 9,000 subscribers of a satellite internet service operated by Orange’s subsidiary Nordnet in France are without internet.
  • The outage on Viasat affected almost one-third of bigblu’s 40,000 users across Europe, including France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Italy, according to Eutelsat, the parent company of bigblu satellite internet service.
  • 5,800 wind turbines with a total output of 11 gigawatts across Germany and Central Europe were also knocked offline due to the cyber-attacks.
  • Institutional websites in Russia were made inaccessible from abroad to protect them from denial of service (DoS) attacks, which rendered them inoperable on a regular basis.

Which country is behind these attacks?

Customers who use Viasat’s KA-SAT satellite in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe have experienced a partial network outage due to a cyber event and so far, no evidence suggesting which country was behind the cyberattacks has been found.

What is a Cyberattack?

Any offensive manoeuvre that targets computer networks, computer information systems, personal computer devices, or infrastructures is known as a cyberattack. An attacker is a process or person that tries to gain unauthorized access to functions, restricted areas of the system, or data, possibly with malicious intent. Cyberattacks can be classified as cyber warfare or cyberterrorism, depending on the context. Cyberattacks can be carried out by sovereign states, people, groups, societies, or organizations. A cyber weapon is a product that facilitates a cyberattack.

What are the effects of Cyberattacks?

By hacking into a vulnerable system, a cyberattack can steal, alter, or destroy a specified target. Cyberattacks have become increasingly dangerous and sophisticated. Cyberattacks can range from installing spyware on a home computer to attempting to destroy entire nations’ infrastructure.


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