The 16th of June, Cyber News
Ukraine
The United States Will Continue to Assist Ukraine in Strengthening Cyber Defense – Ambassador
Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov discussed cooperation with US Ambassador Bridget Brink in the field of cybersecurity and digitalization of Ukraine. «Today I met the new US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink. We agreed on further cooperation in the fields of cybersecurity and digitalization of Ukraine,» Fedorov said. Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Fedorov and US Ambassador Bridget Brink also visited the State Service of Special Communication. The guests got acquainted with the work of the Government’s Computer Emergency Response Team CERT-UA and discussed key issues of cooperation between our countries in the field of digitalization and protection in cyberspace. Fedorov stressed that the United States has been and is an important partner of Ukraine, and the Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity project helps not only to protect itself, but also to introduce new services every week. According to the head of the State Service of Special Communication Yuri Shchigol, Ukraine and the United States are among the countries against which cyberattacks are carried out. «We have common enemies in cyberspace, and this unites us. Our countries support deep and fruitful cooperation in the field of cyber defense, both at the interstate and corporate levels,» Shchigol said. He added that the United States was one of the first countries to offer assistance during the cyber attack on January 14, which the State Special Communications Service considers to be the beginning of an active phase of Russia’s war against Ukraine in cyberspace. Currently, leading American IT companies are helping Ukraine to resist the aggressor. Brink, for her part, stressed that the United States will continue to support and develop Ukraine’s digitalization and cyber defense, as well as important work to protect Ukraine, its people and its democratic future [1].
russia
Hackers Claim that Security Forces in Belarus Are Eavesdropping on Foreign Diplomats, Including Russian Ones
On June 14, belarusian opposition hackers, known as the Cyber Guerrillas, published evidence that the country was eavesdropping on all conversations, even by employees of foreign embassies and consulates, including the russian embassy in belarus. The hackers claim that they were able to break into the classified servers of the Department of Operational and Investigative Activities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of belarus, which contained recordings of wiretapping of russian embassy staff in 2020-2021. As evidence, telephone conversations between a representative of the Interior Ministry’s security department and several employees of the russian embassy were published. In one of the conversations, a woman, who called herself the chief accountant of the embassy, discusses with an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs the conditions of work of security in one of the residences of the diplomatic mission. In another conversation, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told an embassy employee that «a belarusian truck is lying on its side near Kursk», after which the interlocutors discussed the possibility of evacuating the truck. Cyber partisans also published calls from citizens to the embassy and personal conversations of employees. The hackers claim that there are similar records of talks between employees of other embassies and consulates located in belarus. Nastoyaschee Vremya reported that hackers shared with them complete recordings of several hundred calls, as well as accompanying files with metadata. The objects of listening in them are marked with code words, for example, Beetle-6, British and Chest. Given the content of the calls, the silent eavesdropping was conducted around the clock and covered all incoming and outgoing calls of subscribers [2].
The IT army of Ukraine is attacking the resources of arbitration courts on June 16, as well as the St. Petersburg «international» economic forum, which runs until June 18 [3].
World
CyberCube on Cyber Risk Insurance: Losses from Hackers Will Increase to $ 10.5 Trillion in 2025
A new CyberCube report states that cybercriminals demonstrate a variety of motives and maintain complex relationships that insurers should consider when underwriting and covering cyber risks[4].
The report Understanding criminal cyber threat actors and motivations states that there are three main types of threat actors: state-sponsored, criminal gangs and cyber-activists. CyberCube notes that state-sponsored entities are among the most important in the reinsurance industry and potential victims of cybercrime. State-funded hackers are affiliated with government agencies and, as a result, tend to represent well-funded, well-organized, and sophisticated entities with mature procedures and protection from associate government. The report notes that the goals of state-sponsored entities are usually agreed with the government body that sponsors them. Moreover, organized criminal groups are primarily focused on extortionist programs and are rapidly developing their tactics, methods and procedures. In addition, in recent years, more advanced criminal gangs have even turned their attention to providing sophisticated hacking tools to other, affiliated cybercrime gangs through a method of distributing software as a service known as RaaS. The report also discusses how influential hacker activists pose a real threat to business and the cyber insurance market, as these organizations play a very dangerous game when they harm state secrets and intelligence operations, and the potential consequences of such activities are far-reaching. CyberCube expects to increase the activity of national government actors in cyber threats in the coming years. The number of nation-states that now consider cybercapacity key to their strategic national goals is growing, and many nation-states are rapidly developing their capabilities. Current estimates suggest that the global damage from cybercrime will reach $ 10.5 trillion by 2025. Although cybercrime is the subject of significant research, most of it focuses on specific types of attacks. Insurers need to know more about the threats behind these attacks. The CyberCube report focuses on the entities that the insurance industry has to contend with, as they are more likely to carry out cyber attacks on Western democracies and businesses, creating systemic risk that leads to aggregation of risks and large financial losses [5].
