Thursday 18 August 2022 06:04 PM How Russia is harnessing cyber warfare in its conflict with Ukraine trends now

A new report shows that Ukraine is fighting a battle with Russia in cyber space, as well as a physical war. 

Russia has been using 'cyber warfare' on Ukraine since the physical invasion started in late February, says Chicago-based security firm Trustwave.  

Malware has been used against organisations in Ukraine either to destroy or gain control over their online systems and 'damage targets far behind the frontlines'. 

Malware – a catch-all term for any type of malicious software – has been used to steal data, spy on citizens and attack national infrastructure. 

'Observing the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, we can clearly see that cyberattacks leveraging malware are an important part of modern hybrid war strategy,' said Pawel Knapczyk, security research manager at SpiderLabs, Trustwave's investigative branch.

'While conventional warfare is conducted on the battlefield and limited by several factors, cyber warfare continues in cyber space, offering the chance to infiltrate and damage targets far behind the frontlines.'

Perpetrators of the attacks include the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the Russian Federal Security Service and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, according to SpiderLabs. 

The team has listed the array of malware types used as part of its cyber warfare efforts, many of which go by colourful names such as 'AcidRain' and 'Industroyer2'. 

HermeticWiper 

This particular malware is referred to as a 'wiper' because it's intended to erase or 'wipe' the hard drive of the computer it infects. 

It was discovered on hundreds of Ukrainian computers, as well as computers in Lithuania and Latvia, on the evening of February 23, just hours before Russian troops rolled into Ukraine.

It was given the name 'HermeticWiper' based on a digital certificate from a company based in Cyprus called Hermetica Digital Ltd.