The People's Cyber Army of Russia is a group known for its cyber activities. They have been implicated in a number of cyber attacks, including a significant attack on Ukraine's nuclear agency. Russia's cyber strategy has been characterized by a willingness to engage in offensive cyber operations, causing significant harm including financial losses, interruptions to the operation of critical infrastructure, and disruptions of crucial software supply chains. Over time, Russia's cyber activities have become more high-profile and publicly visible, with escalating attacks on major targets.
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It's important to note that the landscape of cyber warfare is complex and constantly evolving. The activities of groups like the People's Cyber Army of Russia highlight the increasing prominence of non-state actors in this domain.
The People's Cyber Army of Russia is a prominent group in the cyber world, known for its extensive cyber activities. They have been implicated in several high-profile cyberattacks, one of the most significant being an attack on Ukraine's nuclear agency. In this particular attack, the group demonstrated their technical prowess by using 7.25 million bot users to simulate hundreds of millions of views of the company’s main page. This effectively launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, a common cyber warfare tactic that overwhelms a network with traffic, rendering it inaccessible.
Over time, Russia's cyber activities have become more high-profile and publicly visible, indicating an increasing boldness and disregard for international norms. The landscape of cyber warfare is complex and constantly evolving. The activities of groups like the People's Cyber Army of Russia highlight the increasing prominence of non-state actors in this domain. These actors often operate outside the confines of traditional warfare, exploiting vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure to achieve their objectives.
In terms of their standing among global hacking collectives, it's difficult to provide an exact ranking. Such rankings can be quite subjective and can change rapidly due to the dynamic nature of the cybersecurity landscape. However, given their involvement in high-profile attacks and their demonstrated technical capabilities, they are certainly considered one of the more active and impactful groups in recent times. Their activities serve as a stark reminder of the growing threat posed by cyber warfare and the importance of robust cybersecurity measures.
The People's Cyber Army of Russia has its roots in the broader landscape of Russian cyber warfare, which includes a variety of activities such as denial of service attacks, hacker attacks, dissemination of disinformation and propaganda, participation of state-sponsored teams in political blogs, internet surveillance using SORM (System for Operative Investigative Activities) technology, and persecution of cyber-dissidents.
According to media and government reports, Russia’s initial cyber operations primarily consisted of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and often relied on the co-optation or recruitment of criminal and civilian hackers. One of the earliest significant operations that brought attention to Russian cyber activities was the large-scale cyberattack on Estonia in 2007. This was followed by similar attacks during Russia's war with Georgia in 2008.
Over the past two decades, Russia has increased its personnel, capabilities, and capacity to undertake a wide range of cyber operations. The Main Directorate of the General Staff, commonly referred to as the GRU, is Russia’s military intelligence agency, which has been implicated in some of Russia’s most notorious and damaging cyber operations.
The visibility of Russia’s cyber operations increased over time with the gradual shift in leadership of those operations from the FSB, Russia’s domestic security agency, to the GRU. This shift brought with it a culture of aggression and recklessness and a high tolerance for operational risk that was unusual in the cyber domain.
More recently, increased activity from Russia’s civilian foreign intelligence service, SVR, has suggested a growing emphasis on long-term, covert cyberespionage operations. For instance, the SolarWinds compromise discovered in late 2020 went undetected for at least nine months.
These milestones have marked the evolution and rise of groups like the People's Cyber Army within the broader context of Russian cyber warfare. Their activities have brought them to prominence and highlight the increasing sophistication and impact of non-state actors in this domain.
The People's Cyber Army of Russia has been implicated in several major cyberattacks. Here are some of the most notorious and impactful ones:
Cyberattacks on Ukraine:
Russian hackers turned out the lights in portions of Ukraine in 2015 and 2016, and unleashed a virus called NotPetya in 2017 that disabled Ukrainian government agencies, banking groups and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant before spreading unchecked to companies around the world. More recently, an attack attributed to Russia’s GRU intelligence arm began on February 24, 2023, with an assault on Ukraine’s communications capabilities via an attack on satellite provider Viasat.
2007 Cyberattacks on Estonia:
This was one of the earliest significant operations that brought attention to Russian cyber activities. The attack was a response to a diplomatic row with Russia over a Soviet war memorial.
2008 Cyberattacks on Russia, South Ossetia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan:
These attacks were part of Russia's cyber warfare against other countries.
These attacks highlight the group's technical prowess and their willingness to engage in offensive cyber operations. The aftereffects of their actions have included significant financial losses, interruptions to the operation of critical infrastructure, and disruptions of crucial software supply chains.
Radware offers a range of products and services that can effectively defend against sophisticated threat actors like the People's Cyber Army of Russia. Here are some key features relevant to the specific threats introduced by this group:
Cloud DDoS Protection Service:
This service defends organizations against network- and application-layer attacks, volumetric assaults, zero-day threats, encrypted attacks, and more. It is backed by Radware’s worldwide cloud security service network, which includes more than 40 security centers and delivers an attack mitigation capacity of 12Tbps. This service can be particularly effective against the DDoS attacks that the People's Cyber Army is known for.
Web Application Security Service:
This is a one-stop-shop for all web application security needs. It is the only cloud WAF service that uses both a positive and negative security model. This can help protect against the various types of web application attacks that sophisticated threat actors often use.
Bot Manager:
Radware Bot Manager provides comprehensive protection of web applications, mobile apps, and APIs from automated threats like bots. Given that the People's Cyber Army has been known to use botnets in their attacks, this could be a crucial line of defense.
Threat Intelligence Subscriptions:
These enhance Radware’s Attack Mitigation Solution and extend its automated, real-time behavioral threat analysis, enabling a preemptive protection.
ERT Services & Subscriptions:
The Radware Emergency Response Team (ERT) is a group of security experts that provides 24x7 support and mitigation services for customers facing a broad array of application- and network-layer DDoS attacks.
These features collectively provide a robust defense against the sophisticated tactics employed by groups like the People's Cyber Army.