Black Arrow Cyber Alert – Ukraine Crisis Impact, Escalating Russian Hostilities
Executive Summary
As the crisis in Ukraine continues to escalate, Black Arrow are advising all parties to remain vigilant to an increasingly likely flashpoint that will include cyber attacks. While the conflict may take place far away from the Channel Islands, UK and wider world, these borders are negligible, if they exist at all, in the digital space.
We recommend you provide your staff with additional awareness to the potential for attack and damage, which may present itself in several ways and not necessarily be targeted. These might be traditional email-based attacks, though they may also involve delivery mechanisms such as infected documents, malicious websites or direct attacks on infrastructure. In many cases, staff may be accustomed to receiving emails with links and documents from trusted third parties, however in the current climate these should be treated with caution in case the correspondence or the sender’s account has been compromised or spoofed.
Due to the involvement of national governments and the funding this provides, there is a strong likelihood of zero-day attacks being used that have been developed for wartime scenarios. Criminal enterprises are also likely to take advantage of any chaos, as they have during the Covid-19 Pandemic. These may include emails with an official appearance or warning, Smishing campaigns or other methods that leverage urgency and fear. Staff should be encouraged to report any suspicious activity, no matter how small.
We also recommend that you confirm, in detail, the monitoring that is in place through your internal IT function or outsourced IT provider, and how they would identify and alert you to an attempted or ongoing incident. This should be part of your incident response plan, which is rehearsed regularly.
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