Newsweek: hackers could be Russia's greatest weapon

Russian hackers have learned how to achieve a physical effect using cyber attacks.

Newsweek magazine devoted a fresh issue to the Russian cyber weapon, depicting a flash bomb on the cover. In the hacker jargon there is such a thing as “from cybernetic to physical effect” - this is when a hacker can achieve real results with catastrophic consequences by cybernetic methods.

For the first time this method was used by the United States and Israel in 2009, when using the Stuxnet virus, through computer networks, thousands of centrifuges that Iran used to enrich uranium were put out of operation. However, today the most savvy in this area are Russia and China, which use computer networks to destroy infrastructure and create life-threatening situations.

As an example of such activities, the publication cites the blast furnace blast at one of the metallurgical plants in Germany after remote intervention in the control system, as well as a similar case in the United States when, due to cyber attacks at one of the enterprises, the energy, water and fuel supply systems were damaged.

“While the press reports on old-fashioned, low-tech hacking attacks like the White House, State Department, and Sony Pictures email hacks, security professionals are increasingly concerned about new and dangerous advances in cyber-physical attacks,” the article says.

According to the US intelligence report for 2015, Russian hackers are leading in this area because they possess sophisticated, sophisticated programming skills and ingenuity. And the world underestimates the possibilities of Russia, experts say. So, the attack on the film company Sony Pictures in connection with the film Interview about the DPRK leader Kim Jong-Une is associated with Russian hackers.

“Moscow's capabilities are worrisome because Russia is the only country that already combines cyber warfare with real weapons and tanks. The Russian-Georgian war is an excellent example. No one has ever done this before,” the publication writes.

In addition, the annexation of Crimea by Russia in April 2014 of the year was accompanied by an avalanche of cyber attacks on hundreds of governmental and industrial organizations of Ukraine, Poland, the European Parliament and the European Commission, the author of the article says. Many of them were committed using BlackEnergy, a virus like Trojan that allows you to remotely infiltrate a computer network. This program was developed by a Russian hacker and was initially used for DDoS attacks, hacking banking systems and spamming.

At the same time, it is rather difficult to establish an exact connection between the criminal activities of hackers and the Kremlin, since the line between political and financial motives is too thin, the author of the article specifies. At the same time, experts have evidence that hacker attacks are often associated with the Russian authorities. Caught on hot cyber criminals in Russia are faced with a choice: to go to prison or work for the FSB.