A new era of cyber warfare: Russia’s Sandworm shows “we are all Ukraine” on the internet

In-depth research on Russia's Sandworm hacking group shows broad capabilities and scope to disrupt anything from critical infrastructure to political campaigns in any part of the world.

Speakers at this year’s CyberwarCon conference dissected a new era of cyber warfare, as nation-state actors turn to a host of new advanced persistent threat (APT) strategies, tools and tactics to attack adversaries and spy on domestic dissidents and rivals. The highest profile example of this new era of nation-state digital warfare is a Russian military intelligence group called Sandworm, a mysterious hacking initiative about which little has been known until recently. The group has nevertheless launched some of the most destructive cyberattacks in history.

Sandworm — Russia, America and the new era of cyber war

We are at war, but not as we have known it. All the big powers are involved and the potential for catastrophe is great. That is the chilling conclusion to be drawn from reading Andy Greenberg’s dystopian journey through state-sponsored cyber hacking.

The hostilities are taking place in real time, undermining a system near you. Whether it is fake news, deepfakes or data theft, populations are desperately seeking to disentangle fact from malicious fiction. Democracy is being undermined routinely. In the US, debate rages about whether the next presidential election will be as manipulated as the last one was. In the UK, the Conservatives have postponed publication a report on Kremlin interference until after next month’s general election. Information is one thing, but what happens when external forces control not just information, but the machinery that makes the state work?

'No such thing' as cyber warfare: Australia's head of cyber warfare

The Australian government wouldn't necessarily call out specific nation-states for cyber attacks or cyber espionage. Attribution is hard, and it isn't done lightly, according to Major General Marcus Thompson, head of the Australian Army's Information Warfare Division.

"There is a tradeoff here between intelligence and evidence, and as a military guy I'm obviously focused on intelligence," Thompson said on Tuesday.

Intelligence analysis doesn't always deliver the kind of standards for evidence that's needed for law enforcement or public attribution, he said.

"We make an assessment, and it's not just necessarily about being able to trace those electrons back through whatever to 'Hah! There's buggalugs sitting at his or her computer screen'. It's contextual."