Russia’s war on Ukraine and its increasingly isolated internet environment could drive Russian cybercriminals to think outside the box and launch new forms of cyber attacks.
“What we are seeing is that a few of these cybercrime groups are either taking sides or imploding amongst themselves due to their Eastern European links with one another,” says Potgieter. The reason we may have not seen a massive cyber-attack in the Ukraine-Russia conflict is because of the potential consequences between two countries should they decide to wage a full-scale cyber-attack against one another. The assumption is no one knows how badly matters would escalate following a major cyber attack.
Potgieter says: “There is growing concern that the sanctions imposed on Russia could force cyber crime syndicates to think outside the box. The cybercrime channels these syndicates operate in could become compromised and these sanctions may affect their revenue streams, resulting in possibly new forms and types of ransomware, or make criminals more aggressive in their techniques, methods and operations.