Dark Web Sites Selling Western Weapons Allegedly Sent to Ukraine
Source: Bleeping Computer
Published: June 9, 2022
Several weapon marketplaces on the dark web have listed military-grade firearms allegedly coming from Western countries that sent them to support the Ukrainian army in its fight against the Russian invaders. Supposedly, these weapons were somehow put aside from the received supplies and are now being made available to terrorists looking to buy rocket launchers and other high-impact attack systems. While the listings appear genuine and the offered weapons are priced realistically, the chances of them being created by pro-Russian actors for propaganda purposes are high.
Attribution of Russia’s Malicious Cyber Activity Against Ukraine
PRESS STATEMENT
https://www.state.gov/attribution-of-russias-malicious-cyber-activity-against-ukraine/
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
MAY 10, 2022
The United States is joining with allies and partners to condemn Russia’s destructive cyber activities against Ukraine. In the months leading up to and after Russia’s illegal further invasion began, Ukraine experienced a series of disruptive cyber operations, including website defacements, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and cyber attacks to delete data from computers belonging to government and private entities – all part of the Russian playbook. For example, the United States has assessed that Russian military cyber operators have deployed multiple families of destructive wiper malware, including WhisperGate, on Ukrainian Government and private sector networks. These disruptive cyber operations began in January 2022, prior to Russia’s illegal further invasion of Ukraine and have continued throughout the war.
Today, in support of the European Union and other partners, the United States is sharing publicly its assessment that Russia launched cyber attacks in late February against commercial satellite communications networks to disrupt Ukrainian command and control during the invasion, and those actions had spillover impacts into other European countries. The activity disabled very small aperture terminals in Ukraine and across Europe. This includes tens of thousands of terminals outside of Ukraine that, among other things, support wind turbines and provide Internet services to private citizens.
As nations committed to upholding the rules-based international order in cyberspace, the United States and its allies and partners are taking steps to defend against Russia’s irresponsible actions. The U.S. Government has developed new mechanisms to help Ukraine identify cyber threats and recover from cyber incidents. We have also enhanced our support for Ukraine’s digital connectivity, including by providing satellite phones and data terminals to Ukrainian government officials, essential service providers, and critical infrastructure operators. We praise Ukraine’s efforts—both in and outside of government—to defend against and recover from such activity, even as its country is under physical attack.
More information on the U.S. government’s efforts to support cybersecurity and connectivity in Ukraine is available here.
Loss of Antonov Planes May Have GEO Shipping Impact
Ukrainian firm Antonov owns and operates the largest cargo aircraft in the world. A significant portion of the company’s fleet has been grounded or destroyed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leaving many GEO satellites to find other rides to the launch site.
Source: Loss of Antonov Planes may have GEO Shipping Impact – Payload (payloadspace.com)
Supply Chain Crisis Worsens As Russia’s War Against Ukraine Continues
As Russia’s war against Ukraine escalates and sanctions by the U.S. and other countries intensify, so does their impact on supply chains around the world.
Going through recent events like the U.S.-China trade war, Covid-induced disruptions, followed by the major armed conflict, many firms that had been skeptical about the idea of reshoring and multi-sourcing started to reexamine their options… they are living through the era of disequilibrium, and all of a sudden ‘just-in-case’ sounds more reasonable than ‘just-in-time’…
After the jolts from these successive events…the momentum will be built towards a model of more regionalized supply chains, with weakened linkages in some areas but also strengthened ones in other corners…
Many big tech companies put facilities in Poland and Hungary are quite close to the fire now. It is forcing those companies to shift capacity and volume to safer regions, like North and South America…
Source: Forbes Supply Chain Crisis Worsens As Russia’s War Against Ukraine Continues (forbes.com)
FCC Puts Kaspersky on Security Threat List
The Federal Communications Commission recently determined that security products from Kaspersky posed an unacceptable risk to US national security and added the company to a covered list of other firms not eligible for FCC funds. Kaspersky becomes the first security company and first Russian entity to be added to the US security threat list. Companies that appear on the list are ineligible to receive any of the $8 billion available annually under the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. The fund supports telecom services in rural areas or is for low-income consumers or entities like schools, libraries, and hospitals. The move adds Kaspersky to the same covered list that Huawei and ZTE landed on in 2021.