LONDON (Realist English). Britain’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has warned of a threat to critical Western infrastructure. It comes from hackers sympathetic to Russia in the conflict with the regime in Kiev, reports Reuters.
Moscow –aligned “hacktivists” have so far conducted mostly harmless online campaigns, damaging well-known public websites or disabling them. Some of these cyber groups are seeking to cause more significant damage, according to a warning from the NCSC, part of the British Government Communications Center (GCHQ), eavesdropping intelligence agency.
“Some have stated a desire to achieve a more disruptive and destructive impact against western critical national infrastructure, including in the UK,” the NCSC said. “We expect these groups to look for opportunities to create such an impact, particularly if systems are poorly protected,” said the alert of the British special service.
The NCSC alert notes that such attacks, which usually require a very high level of technical skills and resources, are “unlikely” to be carried out by hacktivist groups “without external assistance,” but warned that they “may become more effective over time.”
According to the Brits, such groups are ideologically motivated and their interests coincide with the interests of the Russian state, but they “are not under formal state control, which makes them less predictable.”
London warns that a successful cyberattack on critical national infrastructure, including in relation to power systems or water supply, can be destructive and cause serious real damage.
