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Ukraine is hit by a massive cyberattack that targeted government websites [Dated 14 Jan.]
Dozens of Ukrainian government sites have been hit by an ominous cyberattack, with hackers warning people to "be afraid and expect the worst."
The attack took over websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cabinet of ministers and security and defense council, posting a message on screens in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish that read: "Ukrainian! All your personal data was uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore it."
"All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future," the hackers said.
"As a result of a massive cyber attack, the websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a number of other government agencies are temporarily down," a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Twitter. "Our specialists have already started restoring the work of IT systems, and the cyberpolice has opened an investigation."
First on CNN: US intelligence indicates Russia preparing operation to justify invasion of Ukraine
The US has information that indicates Russia has prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine, a US official told CNN on Friday, in an attempt to create a pretext for an invasion.
The official said the US has evidence that the operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia's own proxy forces.
[...] The US intelligence finding comes after a week's worth of diplomatic meetings between Russian and Western officials over Russia's amassing of tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's border. But the talks failed to achieve any breakthroughs, as Russia would not commit to de-escalating and American and NATO officials said Moscow's demands -- including that NATO never admit Ukraine into the alliance -- were non-starters.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday January 15 2022, @04:14PM
There are 2 situations in which war has been useful to society whose leader starts it:
1. When the value of what they plunder is greater than the cost of the war.
2. When the cost of fighting a war is lower than the cost of letting your enemy do whatever they were going to do without fighting. The old "kill them before they kill you" idea. It's worth noting, however, that leaders know that fighting for plunder is less popular than fighting for security, so when they're fighting for plunder they claim they're fighting for security.
There are 2 situations in which war hurts the society whose leader starts it:
1. When they end up losing the fight and thus their society is the one that gets plundered, or their own territory is the area being fought over.
2. When the cost of conducting the war is greater than any plunder they can pick up.
It's worth noting that the longer a war goes on, the more it costs everybody, and the less plunder anybody can win from it, so it steadily moves from being a smart war to a stupid war the longer it drags out. The defenders use those same resources to fight back and/or use scorched earth tactics to prevent their enemies from gaining from any conquered territory. Also, guerilla/paramilitary/partisan/resistance activity increases over time, which diminishes the ability of a conqueror to actually collect whatever resources they were trying to snag. That's why military planners generally claim they can get quick wins rather than extended drawn-out fights if they're trying to convince politicians to attack. And a pretty consistent pattern is that promises of quick victory turn out not to be true, because a lot of those factors operate even if the military and government of the conquered territory aren't functioning.
As for how to protect Ukraine: I'd think a few known-functioning nukes aimed at Moscow under the control of the Kiev government would do the trick.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.