THE billionaire businessman and owner of SpaceX Elon MuskHe tweeted that his company’s Starlink satellite broadcaster, which is available in Ukraine, had resisted Russian interference and hacking efforts in cyber warfare, but added that the Russians were “stepping up their efforts”.
Yesterday, the United States, Britain, Canada, Estonia and the European Union announced that Russia was behind a massive cyber attack on a satellite Internet network that shut down tens of thousands of modems at the start of the Russian War.
The digital attack on Viasat’s KA-SAT network (VSAT.O) in late February took place as soon as Russian armored vehicles invaded Ukraine. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stated that the cyber-attack was aimed at “disrupting the Ukrainian administration and control during the invasion and that these actions had side effects in other European countries”.
THE British Foreign Secretary Liz Trace described the satellite internet breach as “deliberate and malicious” and the EU Council said it had caused “non-discriminatory communication interruptions” in Ukraine and several EU Member States.
The shutdown of Viasat remains the most publicly visible cyber-attack since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in part because the hacking had a direct impact on satellite internet users across Europe and because decommissioned modems often had to be replaced manually.
“After these modems were turned off, it was not like unplugging them, plugging them in again and restarting them and coming back on.”said the director of cybersecurity of the US National Security Agency Rob Joyce yesterday on the sidelines of a cyber security conference held on Tuesday.
“They were out of order and had to return to the factory to be replaced.”
The exact consequences of the hacking on the Ukrainian battlefield have not been made public, but government contracts examined by Reuters show that KA-SAT provided internet connectivity to Ukrainian military and police units.
The sabotage of the satellite modem caused “a huge loss in communications at the beginning of the war,” Ukrainian cybersecurity official Victor Zora said in March.
In a statement, Ukraine’s State Communications and Intelligence Service said Russia “is an aggressive country that is attacking Ukraine not only on our land but also in cyberspace.”
The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia usually denies conducting offensive operations in cyberspace.
Viasat said in a statement that it was “aware” of the announcement and would continue to work with government officials to investigate the hacking. The company did not comment on statements made by a Viasat official to Reuters in late March that hackers were still trying to interfere with the company’s operations, albeit with limited results.
The cyber-attack that destroyed the satellite modem remains the most visible hack of the war, but since then many more have taken place and not everything has been made public.
“This was the biggest single event”said Joyce. “It certainly had new and innovative technical means, but there were multiple attacks.”
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