The UK government is warning companies and organisations to sort out their defences against potential Russian cyberattacks.
Moscow is massing military forces on the Ukrainian border and the UK has been hacking off Putin by pointing out that this is a bad idea. As result, it is expected that Russia’s hackers will start targeting business.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre has directed organisations to take action “in response to the malicious cyber incidents in and around Ukraine,” saying recent attacks are “similar to a pattern of Russian behaviour seen before in previous situations”.
Airector of operations Paul Chichester said: “While we are unaware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to events in Ukraine, we are monitoring the situation closely and it is vital that organisations follow the guidance to ensure they are resilient.”
UK organisations should protect against potential attacks by patching their computer systems and enabling multi-factor authentication, the National Cyber Security Centre said. They should also ensure that online defences are working as expected and keep up to date with the latest threat and mitigation information.
The recommendations are primarily aimed at larger organisations.
“Over several years, we have observed a pattern of malicious Russian behaviour in cyberspace. Last week’s incidents in Ukraine bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity we have observed before”, Chichester said last Friday.
