CIOInsider India Magazine
Tech Companies Cutting Links to the Russia-Ukraine War
Nations by far have imposed strict sanctions cutting links to international access and functions to Russian institutions, individuals and certain trades, hoping to stop the invasion. While the desire to capture a nation and that nation’s struggle to safeguard its identity, has struck the harmony of the world as it progressed to a new year, looking forward to making promises a reality. Yet, only to be shaken by the sudden invasion, as Russia is a major provider of supply chains to many countries.
Besides sanctions, big techs have also taken various moves in attempts to break the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Meta Restricts Russian-based Media in Europe
Meta made it clear by denying access to Russian state-controlled media in Europe, such as RT and Sputnik, will be restricted. Meta stated that it was taking these steps in response to "requests from a number of Governments and the EU" about Russian state-controlled media. Facebook and Instagram will begin removing information from Russian state-controlled media pages from their services. These pages had already been barred from monetizing their material on Facebook. Users will have a tougher time finding these pages and their content throughout the company's platforms. It will also mark links from these outlets on Facebook and Instagram so that everyone who sees them has context before clicking or sharing them.
On February 25, Facebook announced the creation of a special operations center to monitor the dispute. It also stated that users in Ukraine would be able to lock their social media profiles for security reasons. It took down a network of 40 phony accounts, groups, and pages on Facebook and Instagram on February 28. Then, the company revealed that a hacker organization was using Facebook to target Ukrainian prominent figures.
‘Spillover strikes’ or intentional reprisal attacks against the US and European organizations, according to Massachusetts-based Recorded Future, could occur
On March 1, Twitter said that it would begin labelling all Russian government-affiliated media websites, as well as taking steps to limit the distribution of such content on the network. The remark was made by Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of Site Integrity, who said that the business was receiving more than 45,000 tweets each day sending links to Russian state-affiliated media outlets. The 'Stay Informed' badge acts as a warning and appears on top of links posted by these state-affiliated accounts. This is to assure that, in light of the situation in Ukraine, more apparent context is supplied to tweets from these handles. Twitter has already ceased running ads in Russia and Ukraine, as well as launching crisis-related timeline prompts.
Google Stops Working in Russia, YouTube Blocks Russian Media Channels
While Google Pay is no longer available in Russia, the company's Google Maps service is no longer available in Ukraine. This was done to protect Ukrainian citizens. YouTube said that it would begin blocking channels associated with Russian state-backed media sources such as RT and Sputnik in Europe. The decision was made due to the dissemination of disinformation by Russia's state-owned media.
Apple Stops Selling Products
Apple has confirmed that it has halted sales of its products in Russia, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watch, and other Apple devices. Outside of Russia, the RT and Sputnik applications were also removed from the App Store. Apple, like Google, has disabled both traffic and live incidents in Ukraine on its Apple Maps app. In Russia, it also restricted the usage of its Apple Pay service.
SpaceX Supplies Starlink Internet
Many Ukrainian cities experienced internet outages during Russia's war on the country. After Ukraine appealed to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the company sent a shipment of Starlink terminals to the country. Through Starlink's 'constellations' of low-earth-orbit satellites, the Starlink terminals may access high-speed, low-latency internet.
But wait, a senior researcher at civic tech firm CitizenLab, John Scott-Railton, tweeted that Starlink devices might be triangulated and targeted for airstrikes.
Speaking of strikes, this conflict has also brought back the fear of possible massive cyberattacks. A situation that could be similar to COVID-19’s strike or could probably get worse.
Cyber Wars
There are concerns about possible cyberattacks against other countries as well. The US, in particular, has warned that Russia could undertake cyber strikes such as DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) and even something more deadly.
Hackers launched powerful data-destroying software on Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs' network, syphoning off massive amounts of data from the country's telecommunications network. Key Kyiv government websites, including those of the parliament, government, foreign ministry, and other state institutions, became unreachable on the same day that Russian forces invaded Ukrainian territory.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, has stated that the country is forming a ‘IT army’ to combat Russian cyber-attacks.
‘Spillover strikes’ or intentional reprisal attacks against the US and European organizations, according to Massachusetts-based Recorded Future, could occur.
Security experts in India fear that the attacks may not be a direct target, but it may be subjected to collateral harm.
Given the current scenario, some hackers will work in the shadows attacking those who have a big Internet market base like India. There may be a rise in WiFi hacking and individual accounts will be targeted”, says Liad Herman, co-founder and chief executive officer of SafeHouse Tech, an Indo-Israeli cybersecurity enterprise.
According to Saryu Nayyar, CEO of security firm Gurucul, Russia may try to disrupt financial systems and critical infrastructure such as the power grid or oil production to put pressure on the US to ease sanctions.
With the formation of a cyber-rapid-response team, several European Union countries, notably Lithuania, Croatia, and Poland, are providing assistance to Ukraine.
It is also evident that Russia has been digging at infrastructure in Western countries such as the US, the UK, and Germany, and has been caught in the act several times.
Officials and business executives are scrambling to patch, prepare, and wargame in case Russia decides to launch direct assaults against US infrastructure, unleash a wave of disruptive ransomware, or launch a targeted hack against Ukraine that spreads to US networks.
