Washington and Moscow have long denied carrying out malicious cyber activities against each other, but US Cyber Command Director Paul Nakasone confirmed last week in an interview with “Sky News” that the US Defense Department’s cyber branch is responsible for a series of cyber-attacks against Russia, some of which are in support of Ukraine in her war.
Days after the US official’s statements, the Russian presidential special representative in the field of information security Andrei Krutskych accused the United States of “launching cyber aggression against Russia and its allies”, in an interview with the local newspaper “Kommersant”, on Monday.
And the American magazine “Newsweek” said that it had obtained a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the nature of Moscow’s possible response, in which Krutskykh said: “Rest assured. Russia will not leave any aggressive actions unanswered.”
“How and where (will be the response)? It remains to be determined, but all our steps and goals will be measured in accordance with our legislation and international law,” said Krutskikh, who is also director of the International Information Security Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Although the absence of international cooperation left a dangerous gray area for launching a “cyberwar”, Krutskikh said the administration of US President Joe Biden “clearly violated international law when it came to Washington’s support for Kiev.”
“State institutions, critical and social infrastructure facilities and storage of personal data of our citizens and foreigners living in Russia are being bombed. US and Ukrainian officials bear responsibility for sabotage and categorically refuse to establish international legal foundations. They do not seem to fully understand the seriousness of such aggressiveness and the encouragement of information gangs,” Krutskikh said. .
The senior Russian official then included what he described as evidence of such activities against Russia, which often involve cyber attacks using foreign servers based in Western countries, such as the United States and Germany.
He said that during the months of May and June alone, Russia experienced more than 65,000 cyber attacks, mostly from the United States and Europe.
Left unaccounted for, Krutskikh warned of “potential repercussions in the real world, including a direct military clash between the world’s two largest nuclear powers.”
“The militarization of the information space by the West and attempts to turn it into an arena of confrontation between states significantly increased the risk of a direct military clash with unpredictable consequences. Once again I would like to repeat: the uncontrolled distribution of electronic weapons and encouraging their use will not lead to The good”.
The United States also accused Russia of launching multiple cyber attacks, and warned of the escalation of this threat against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“We don’t believe we are out of danger in terms of the threat at this time,” Jane Easterly, director of the US Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, said on Tuesday.
“It’s only been 100 days since the war in Ukraine. We know that the use of malicious cyber activity is part of the Russian game’s rules, whether it’s through a state-sponsored entity or through allied groups.”
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