Russia to Launch Cyber Attack Against Australia In Retaliation for the Latter’s Support for Ukraine

According to Australian media reports on December 26th, in retaliation for Australia’s support to Ukraine, Russia is planning to launch a threatening cyber attack on Australia’s critical infrastructure services and defense supply chain in 2023. Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, Clare O’Neil announced Australia had countermeasures to stop “Nefarious Cyber Activity”.

Last week, former Russian President and deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev officially declared Australia an enemy of Russia because of its support for Ukraine. During the same period, Australia’s Signals Directorate, responsible for foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive operations agency, confirmed that this was a well-funded and well-staffed state action that had demonstrated its sophistication and capability to attack infrastructure, especially the energy sector.

Intelligence shows that as global geopolitical and economic pressures increase, not only Russia, but as well as Communist China and Iran are also involved in the cyber attacks. Hacking increases systemic risk to Australia’s critical infrastructure, services and systems. The damage is caused by the ransomware cyber threat group, as well as the hackers who aim to destroy or steal critical information. O’Neil emphasized that Australia is ready to strike back at anyone who tried to create a crisis here and had launched a counterattack, prioritizinsives.