Alert - Risk of malicious cyber activity against Ukraine-aligned nations

Number: AL23-001
Date: February 24, 2023

Audience

This Alert is intended for IT professionals and managers of notified organizations.

Purpose

An Alert is used to raise awareness of a recently identified cyber threat Cyber threatA threat actor, using the internet, who takes advantage of a known vulnerability in a product for the purposes of exploiting a network and the information the network carries. that may impact cyber information assets, and to provide additional detection DetectionThe monitoring and analyzing of system events in order to identify unauthorized attempts to access system resources. and mitigation advice to recipients. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Cyber securityThe protection of digital information, as well as the integrity of the infrastructure housing and transmitting digital information. More specifically, cyber security includes the body of technologies, processes, practices and response and mitigation measures designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access so as to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability. (Cyber Centre) is also available to provide additional assistance regarding the content of this Alert to recipients as requested.

Details

The Cyber Centre is urging Canadian organizations to be vigilant and prepared for potential malicious cyber activity following the one-year mark of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The Cyber Centre would like to specifically warn Canadian organizations and critical infrastructure Critical infrastructureProcesses, systems, facilities, technologies, networks, assets, and services essential to the health, safety, security, or economic well-being of Canadians and the effective functioning of government. Critical infrastructure can be stand-alone or interconnected and interdependent within and across provinces, territories, and national borders. Disruptions of critical infrastructure could result in catastrophic loss of life, adverse economic effects, and significant harm to public confidence. operators to be prepared for the possible disruption, defacement, and attempted exploitation of Canadian network assets by cyber threat actors aligned with Russian interests.

On February 23, 2023, CISA published an AlertFootnote 1 urging organizations and individuals to increase their cyber vigilance and have provided their assessment that Ukraine-aligned countries may experience disruptive and defacement attacks against websites on February 24, 2023, the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. CISA has provided several recommendations for their constituents of which the Cyber Centre also recommends the following:

  • Increasing organizational vigilance
  • Implementing cybersecurity best practices
  • Increasing resilience and preparing for rapid response
  • Lowering the threshold for threat and information sharing

The Cyber Centre is aware that Russia-aligned actors have conducted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS DDOSSee Distributed denial-of-service attack. ) campaigns towards Ukraine-aligned nations and recommends the following guidance to better protect Canadian organizations.

Protecting your organization against denial of service attacks - ITSAP.80.100

The Cyber Centre encourages Canadian organizations to review their security posture and to ensure security controls are effective and in place. See recommended actions for further guidance.

Recommended actions

The Cyber Centre recommends organizations:

  • Review the following joint publications which may help organizations detect and mitigate threats outlined in this report. Footnote 2Footnote 3
  • Review perimeter systems to determine if related activity has occurred or how to better prepare for potential malicious activity.
  • Report any cyber incidents to the Cyber Centre which may be associated with threats outlined in this report.

In addition, the Cyber Centre strongly recommends that organizations review and implement the Cyber Centre’s Top 10 IT Security ActionsFootnote 4 with an emphasis on the following topics:

  • Consolidate, monitor, and defend Internet gateways
  • Isolate web-facing applications
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