(NewsNation Now) — As Ukraine recovers from another round of cyberattacks, an expert in the United States says there’s little America can do to prepare against such an organized attack.
ReachOut Technology founder and CEO Rick Jordan said the defenses U.S. organizations employ guarantee them “nothing.”
“We haven’t seen a lot of the capabilities of some of these nation states,” Jordan said Wednesday on “The Donlon Report.” “And I feel that China would probably diplomatically back this invasion, whether it’s by tanks and guns or whether it’s by cyberwarfare,” Jordan said.
Just last year, the White House issued an open letter to companies urging them to take ransomware more seriously following back-to-back attacks by Russian hackers on the world’s largest meat supplier, JBS Foods. They paid $11 million to the hackers. Colonial Pipeline, a key oil processing company, was taken offline for days, which resulted in long lines at gas stations in multiple states.
A 2020 breach hit the Department of Homeland Security, Commerce and Agriculture departments. In 2016, the Democratic National Committee was hacked, resulting in the release of thousands of emails on WikiLeaks.
However, these were just rogue agents — “state sponsored criminals,” as Jordan describes them. What the U.S. is possibly up against could be far worse.
“I think satellites (represent) probably one of the biggest” sectors that could be attacked, Jordan said. “Imagine all of the sudden not being able to transfer funds or being able to make a payment or not being able to make a call just because a main satellite goes out.”
Thus far, the attacks have not led to bloodshed, but last June, Biden cautioned a “real shooting war” with a “major power” could be the result of a significant cyberattack on the country.
On Feb. 12, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a “Shields Up” alert for American organizations, recommending they all “adopt a heightened posture” because of Russia’s invasion plans.
“While there are not currently any specific credible threats to the U.S. homeland, we are mindful of the potential for the Russian government to consider escalating its destabilizing actions in ways that may impact others outside of Ukraine,” the CISA said.
Russia has hit Ukraine with cyberattacks twice this month. On Feb. 15, they hit the defense ministry and two banks with a distributed denial of service, or DDOS, attack that brought their websites down. Wednesday, the country’s parliament and other banking sites were hit again.
“These cyberattacks, really, are a form of psychological warfare using technical tools,” Jordan said. “It’s really just lowering the morale of all the citizens in the Ukraine.”