As cyberattacks continue to escalate, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict illustrates a new era in cyber warfare that impacts both individuals and firms worldwide.
This is the view of Daniel Ballmer, a cybersecurity specialist at BlackBerry, who wrote in a recently published blog post that the ongoing conflict in Ukraine proves that cyber warfare has no boundaries.
“From a cybersecurity perspective, the current circumstances in Ukraine favour unscrupulous actors while placing legitimate organisations and citizens at a severe disadvantage,” he said. “The global, digital space is not a place of hard boundaries or easily verifiable national identities, and Russia hosts many capable and historically active cyber threat groups. This puts every organisation, everywhere, at an increased risk of cyberattack."
As a result, he urges companies to seek an effective, simple and harmonious cybersecurity replacement that can gradually be phased in with their current technology to address these concerns.
His warning comes a few days after both Italy and Germany cautioned users of potential cyber risks associated with Kaspersky Labs, a Moscow-based antivirus (AV) software firm.
The warnings alerted users that the Russian government could pressure Kaspersky to perform cyberattacks.
This isn’t the first time Kaspersky has faced allegations of collaborating with the Russian Federal Security Services (FSB). In 2017, the US government banned federal agencies from using cybersecurity software made by the Russian firm after the Department of Homeland Security accused the company of cyber espionage.
In December of the same year, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) also issued a warning against using Russian AV products.
