The increase in the number of hacker attacks from the Russian special services is a kind of "pilot project", preparation for the creation of large-scale chaos in the West. Such a view was expressed by the former national security adviser to the British Prime Minister, Lord Peter Ricketts, in an interview with the Evening Standard.
A similar statement was made by the ex-official after the British foreign minister, Jeremy Hunt, accused Russian military intelligence (GRU) of a whole wave of cyber attacks launched against various countries of the world.
Recall that a few days ago Hunt announced a series of hacker attacks against political institutions, media, commercial companies and even sports organizations. The British believe that the Russian special services are behind all these actions.
Why Putin hacker army?
Lord Ricketts argues that the current activity of Russian hackers is a kind of test, a “training”, during which the effectiveness of such actions is tested. In his opinion, the Russians are just testing new cyber war technologies. In the future, using similar methods, they will be able to plunge the West into chaos.
“I suppose some other attacks are similar to random ones. And I wonder if we are seeing something like a pilot project here, a“ proof of concept ”in which they checked what can be done if you use it more seriously” - said the adviser.
The British National Cyber Security Center claims that a number of hackers that they were able to identify were employees of the GRU. They are accused of several attacks at once: the leakage of the files of the World Anti-Doping Agency, the attack on the transport system of Ukraine and the interference in the American presidential election.
The ex-official believes that the Kremlin was seriously motivated to hold these actions. With the help of hacking WADA computers, hackers tried to dispel very serious suspicions about Russian athletes. Even more obvious are the motives for the attack on Ukrainian computer networks: according to Ricketts, for several years now Russia has been trying to destabilize the situation in this country in various ways.
Recall, today a very sharp statement about Russia has allowed himself the Minister of War Gavin Williamson. He called it a “rogue state” and said that her behavior was unacceptable. This statement was made during the official visit of the official to Germany.
“We see a state that is ready to disregard all the rules. A state that is ready to disregard all borders and has no respect for other countries,” said a British official.
Such a minister’s demarche was a reaction to the results of investigations by the British and Dutch intelligence services, which accused the Kremlin of organizing hacker attacks. Earlier, the authorities of the Netherlands reported that they had sent four intelligence officers from Russia back in the spring. Then the attackers were preparing a hacker attack on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), located in The Hague. Thus, the attack failed to disrupt. The Russian special services are also accused of intending to gain access to the investigation materials regarding the crash of the Boeing MN17 "Malaysian Airlines" over the Donbas in 2014. This was also stated by the government of the Netherlands. Canada, in turn, reported on the attacks of Russian hackers on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the National Center for Ethics in Sport, which are based in Montreal.
