war in Ukraine
Expert: Cyber attack would hit Germany harder than Ukraine
Russia’s attack on Ukraine was accompanied by cyberattacks. A leading expert attributes the fact that no major damage has been caused so far to the defensive qualities of the Ukrainians. German companies, on the other hand, are poorly prepared. (Iconic image) Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Russia’s attack on Ukraine was accompanied by cyberattacks. A leading expert attributes the fact that no major damage has been caused so far to the defensive qualities of the Ukrainians.
According to a leading security expert, companies and public institutions in Germany are less well protected against an attack from cyberspace than Ukraine was before the Russian armed forces.
So far, security experts in Germany, Great Britain and Scandinavia have only had to fend off theoretical threats, said Mikko Hyppönen, head of the Finnish security company F-Secure.
Ukraine, on the other hand, has been in a cyber war with Russia for years. “They had to defend themselves again and again against real attacks. Ukraine is the best country in Europe when it comes to defending its networks against cyber attacks.»
The more technically advanced a nation is, the easier it is to bring it to its knees with online attacks, Hyppönen told the German Press Agency. “Germany is a prime example of this. It is a high technology country with highly developed and very large industrial capacities.” Every factory and every power plant in Germany is controlled by computers, including the food processing plants. “Everything is online and connected to each other.” The Internet was designed to control a critical infrastructure.
Hyppönen said it was difficult for governments like the federal cabinet to subsequently secure infrastructure. “Very large parts of it do not even belong to the Federal Republic, but to private companies. And now it’s up to the government and the military to somehow motivate the companies and tell them that they should spend significant sums of money to protect the systems against potential attacks by foreign governments.” Implementation is not easy. “It takes a lot of planning, a lot of leadership and a lot of money.” The biggest problem at the moment, however, is finding suitable specialist staff.
The Federal Association of Energy and Water Management pointed out that energy companies in Germany have recently recorded more cyber attacks. However, there was no threat to the security of supply, said association spokesman Jan Ulland of the daily newspaper “Welt”.
Criminal Russian cybergangs are after the money
The attack trend is towards ransomware and phishing attacks. However, so far none of the attacks have been successful. “We cannot see a direct connection between this development and what is happening in Ukraine,” said Ulland.
Hyppönen pointed out that criminal Russian cybergangs like Lockbit have since distanced themselves from being part of Russia’s warfare for financial reasons. Their only concern is to continue to receive money from Western companies’ cyber insurance policies after blackmail attacks. As a rule, however, insurance companies do not have to pay if the damage is due to force majeure or acts of war. “Lockbit has realized that if the insurance companies say they’re part of the war, they won’t pay more.” The criminals are primarily concerned with the money.