ARE THERE MORE CYBER ATTACKS?
What is striking is that fear of cyber attacks in particular has increased, but that their frequency is not specifically higher than before the start of the war. However, we are seeing greater unrest, which is serving as a wake-up call. Banks and healthcare institutions in particular, but also other organisations, are questioning the security of their websites.
When our customers ask us this question, we explain the tools we use to prevent cyber attacks, thereby reassuring them.
Is Russia shutting down the Internet?
Russia may occupy a large part of the world geographically and it can certainly create a certain amount of chaos, but not to the extent that the internet would go down everywhere else in the world. Their main focus at the moment is to disrupt the functioning of the countries they are at war with.
This move was quickly met with opposition. Elon Musk opened up his network via the Starlink satellites to counteract the disruption in Ukraine after a call from its president via Twitter. The Starlink satellites do not function as a traditional satellite system that remains at the same altitude and location, but consist of separate nodes that orbit and do not fly as high. Musk therefore sent more satellites in the direction of Ukraine to restore communications.
In fact, the entire system functions somewhat like a Wi-Fi repeater that transmits signals to a base station on the ground. This is traceable and therefore a relatively weak link, but Ukraine's neighbouring countries are close enough to pick up the signals. Its use is therefore not ideal for actual military purposes, but it is a reliable system for maintaining internet connectivity during wartime.
In its own country, Russia's control goes one step further. There, the distribution of Western media is restricted, communications and internet hubs are disrupted, and attempts are made to shut down internet operators. In theory, they could even physically invade a data centre or cut fibre optic cables, but for the time being, this is still a bridge too far for them.
RUSSIAN HACKERS
DDOS
At the beginning of the war, there was a lot of fear surrounding Russian hackers, but we now see that their influence is limited. However, there are many destructive attacks on Ukraine in terms of state security and health. The hackers use various types of DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks to shut down certain locations.
The attackers naturally prefer to remain hidden, so it often remains a matter of speculation as to who they are and what their motivation is. However, the constant factor is that there is always a desire for financial gain, and therefore there is usually a commercial motive behind the attacks.
For us as a hosting partner, DDoS attacks are part of everyday life, so they don't cause panic. When larger attacks occur, external partners are called in to scale up and repel the attack.
Other attacks
In addition to DDoS, there are other types of attacks that are becoming increasingly common, such as Wiper attacks and Lock and Lead. A Wiper attack effectively deletes data from ordinary users that cannot be recovered. In a Lock and Leak attack, data is first stolen and can only be recovered if you pay money. You need to be careful with this, because often the attackers don't even have the data. We can tell this if we haven't seen any traffic leaving. So even if you pay, you won't get your data back in that case. It's a type of ransomware.
The approach is often different for businesses. Hackers first try to quietly gain access to the company network and take their time to study it. They then cause as much damage as possible, sometimes motivated by money and sometimes purely for destructive purposes. We saw the latter, for example, during the invasion of Ukraine, when Viasat modems happened to be unavailable for communication that day. They had smuggled programmes in beforehand.
There is only one solution to combat these types of attacks, and that is to always update. It is the most important advice ever!
HOSTING CONCERNS?
One of the biggest concerns in hosting is server virtualisation and the fear that someone will gain root access to a virtual server. Because once hackers manage to gain access at the highest level, no password is secure enough.
That is why we provide security at various levels. It starts with keeping the website up to date. This also includes installing patches and updates so that they cannot get any further on the server.
That is why all updates must be implemented immediately and we are very careful to ensure that any weaknesses are eliminated immediately. In addition, we monitor constantly and, in the event of an attack, response speed is very important. A team is immediately assembled with the primary goal of stopping the attack as quickly as possible and identifying what data may have been accessed.
