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Writer's pictureBurton Kelso, Tech Expert

What Russian Cyber Attacks on The US Could Look Like

Updated: Mar 1, 2022



With Russia hammering Ukraine with cyber warfare, there's a good chance Russia could set its sights on the US. Private and state-sponsored cyberattacks from Russia targeting the US government and businesses have increased during the pandemic including the Soloarwinds attack and the Colonial Pipeline attack last year. On top of that, Ukraine is dependent on foreign technology With the conflict, here are some of the US cyber attacks that could occur. Share this story with your friends and family to help them prepare for the worst.


You shouldn't think for a minute that this invasion won't impact your life. As this situation continues to evolve, Russia could choose to retaliate against the U.S. over imposed sanctions. If Russia attacks the US in a cyberwar they will target our military, but there are other critical infrastructure areas they will target such as the Internet, our power grid, water treatment facilities, power plants, banking as well as our GPS network. How will they attack? As in they did in Ukraine, you can see some of these attacks develop from the following methods from the Russian government and solo cybercriminals.


WIPER attacks. This new form of cyberattack is simple. Infect a computer and wipe all of the data. This could be devastating to financial institutions and infrastructure computers. With information wiped from computers and networks, it could cause a total loss of information, and infrastructure failure could send a city or a state back to the Stone Age.


Ransomware Attacks. Ransomware attacks are dangerous because they encrypt data and demand a high ransom to get the data. Ransomware attacks normally just encrypt files so they aren't accessible. With new Ransomware attacks, criminals will not only lock your files but will threaten to release them on the web as well.


DDOS. Direct denial of services attacks occurs when criminals sent bots and other malicious programs to block internet traffic to your websites and email servers. These attacks are dangerous because they can disrupt business operations and in the case of public works or banks and other financial institutions, bring them to a screeching halt.


Phishing, Vishing, and Phishing. Phishing attacks come in the form of email, voice, and text and are the primary way criminals attack computers and devices. Phishing attacks occur when cyber crooks pretend to be a person of authority and are devastating when people fall for these attacks and give out valuable information such as passwords and other private data that could be used to bring down a business or government institutions. In this day of remote work, it's easy for a criminal to target remote workers to get inside information. Remember the Twitter hack of 2020? It occurred because a remote worker gave sensitive data to a criminal posing as an IT staff member at Twitter.


Fakes News and Alerts. Social media is the breeding ground for creating fake information and fake alerts. Russian bots, fake social media accounts can be used to spread misinformation and also be used to cause cyber attacks on individual and business accounts.


Charity Scams. Whenever there is a local or global crisis, you can always count on charity scams to pop up. It's easy for anyone to set up a GoFundMe or a social media post asking for financial support for victims of a traumatic event. Always verify charities before you send them money.


If you're a small business owner or an individual, you need to make sure you're ready for what could come. 99% of cybercrime requires user interaction which means you and your devices are safe from most attacks. This protects you from common methods, but in a cyberwar, cyberattacks will evolve making it harder for you to stay safe from attacks.


With cybercrime, it's hard to know where Russian government hackers are and if they are lurking within critical systems in the U.S. and how much damage they can cause. Most organizations in the US are prepared for cyberwarfare, but it's always good to know what attacks could occur to give you a better understanding of what can happen and what things you need to watch out for


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Want to ask me a tech question? Send it to burton@callintegralnow.com. I love technology. I've read all of the manuals and I'm serious about making technology fun and easy to use for everyone.


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