Raising cyber defenses

CISA Issues Warning to Agencies, Companies Amid Fears of Russian Cyberattack

The United States government has called on agencies, businesses and other critical organizations to fortify their defenses against possible Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks as the situation along the Ukrainian border further deteriorates. The call for heightened alertness was made through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Shields Up warning, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

On Monday, CISA’s alert was emailed to companies in the defense industry. The agency said that launching cyberattacks have been part of Russian tactics in the past, citing the time when it began escalating its aggressive posture against Ukraine in 2015.

CISA said the Kremlin fully realizes the value of launching cyberattacks to disable critical infrastructure as a means of bullying “a country’s government, military and population and accelerate their acceding to Russian objectives.”

Meanwhile, CISA said it has been working with partners in critical infrastructure to make them aware of the potential threats they are facing and to prepare in advance. The agency advised concerned organizations to ensure their employees use multi-factor authentication when logging on remotely to their networks or for privileged and administrative access and to ensure their software is up to date.

Furthermore, organizations, regardless of size, were also told to make sure their IT departments have turned off any ports or protocols that are not needed to conduct business and put stronger control mechanisms in place if using cloud services.

While the U.S. goes on heightened cyber alert, Russia is adamant it has no plans to attack Ukraine and foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin has condemned “dangerous lies” being spread by Western powers.