Posted on 04/08/2022 11:03:27 AM PDT by blam
Finland was hit with cyberattacks targeting government sites on Friday just as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was addressing Finnish Parliament. The Ukrainian leader has regularly been giving formal speeches before lawmaking bodies across the West and the world, making urgent please for additional military and humanitarian assistance to his besieged nation.
The attack impacted both the Ministry of Defense’s website and the foreign ministry’s site, the latter which later clarified that it was a denial-of-service attack, noting that the issue has since been resolved.
The defense ministry earlier issued an urgent tweet saying its website was experiencing and attack and would have to shutter until things were resolved.
The attacks are suspected as coming from Russia, also given reports that a Russian government aircraft may have breached Finnish airspace on Friday, according to Bloomberg.
According to details in Finnish media:
A Russian government fleet aircraft is suspected of violating Finnish airspace in the Gulf of Finland off Porvoo on Friday morning. According to the Ministry of Defense, the suspected airspace violation by a IL-96-300 lasted three minutes.
The ministry’s communications office told Yle that this was the first violation of Finnish territory this year. The most recent previous violation of Finnish airspace by a Russian plane was in July 2020.
Minister of Defense Antti Kaikkonen subsequently stated on Twitter, “Our territorial surveillance capability is good and we detect all territorial violations and are able to respond to them effectively.”
The reported cyberattack had happened as Zelensky addressed Finish lawmakers, condemning atrocities he alleged were intentionally carried out by Russian forces:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia for striking Kramatorsk Train station with a missile, as he addressed Finland’s parliament on Friday.
The latest: https://t.co/zwi3n6UAp1 pic.twitter.com/8uJZS8ZPCu
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 8, 2022
All of this is being taken as a ‘message’ from Moscow, also given reports this week that Finland is now mulling applying for NATO membership. Days ago Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said, “Russia is not the neighbor we thought it was,” and called Moscow’s ongoing assault on Ukraine a “flagrant violation”.
A Friday report in Axios suggested that NATO applications from neutral countries Finland and Sweden could be ‘imminent’.
The homepages of @DefenceFinland and @Ulkoministerio are down. Classic Russian cyber attack. As things would have it, attack timed with @ZelenskyyUa speech at Finnish Pariament. Expect more hybrid attacks as Finland prepares to apply for @NATO membership. #resilience
— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) April 8, 2022
On Friday during the Ukrainian leader’s virtual address, Finland’s foreign ministry tweeted: “President Zelenskyy gave a historic address to the Parliament today,” and added, “Finland firmly supports Ukraine in its efforts to defend freedom and democracy.”
Re-Launching the PING ME WHEN THE INTERNET GOES DOWN Ping list This used to be kept by somebody else here but I can't find him or her.
If the actual owner of this ping list replies, I will happily relinquish the responsibility. If anyone wants on or off the list, kindly FReepmail me. Thanks!
As if threats and attempted intimidation go answered.
Please, for the love of god, put me on the MASS CHAOS LIST!!!
If they switched on their radars to track the russian plane(s), the russians now know where their air defense radars are located.......
One of the great revelations this war has been how wimpy Russian cyber warriors have been. At most they have been able to take down a few websites.
Russia’s strategy has always been:
1) Find an exploit
2) Immediately use it
That has gotten a lot of attention over the years, but it means they don’t have a collection of exploits to deploy in war time.
The NSA does the opposite. We have a huge library of exploits that are not public.
Really? You are absolutely sure the Russians have nothing in reserve at all, but the Americans have lots?
Do you realize what this means?
This means you have super powers to know exactly that Russians have no secret information in reserve whatsoever. You have super special spy contacts too.
Could you please post to Free Republic more often since you have super secret information that no one else can know or discern?
This is incredible that we have a member here who can do this for us.
Sorry to disappoint. I’m just an ordinarily educated person who pays attention to the world.
We have some sense of how the NSA operates from the Shadow Brokers leak a few years ago that had many exploits never before recorded.
From Russia we have seen a constant stream of high profile advanced hacks over the years (Fancy Bear/Cozy Bear) but each hack burns an exploit path.
What did Russian cyber warriors manage to do when the Ukraine War began:
* Turn off the lights in Kiev - Nope
* Shut down road and rail systems - Didn’t happen
* Take down Ukrainian television and radio - Not that either
* Release personal details to embarrass Ukrainian leaders - Failed on that one too
* Briefly take down meaningless public websites of the Ukrainian defense ministry - Success!
Only conclusion is that Russia takes advantage of exploits of convenience, but when the regime’s survival depends on winning a war they can’t deliver anymore more than a script kiddy DDOS.
So you think the Russians didn’t take out the electricity, roads, rail, TV and radio because they were totally incapable of it.
Riiiiiiight.
When you tell us the Russians have no secret knowledge in reserve whatsoever, this tells everyone on the forum that you have convinced yourself of something you have no way of knowing. Hopefully this isn’t an ongoing habit.
What other explanation is there? It’s the same as the T-14 and Su-57. If you aren’t using an asset in a conflict that is an existential threat to the survival to your regime it doesn’t exist.
The Russians didn’t shut off the electricity, TV stations the trains, or the roads of Kiev because they decided against doing so.
It’s really strange you think these didn’t happen because they were incapable of it
When I was in the USAF (USAFSS) 50 years ago, we worked with NSA. It was a very good agency back then. I have no idea what it is today.
So they decided to do the useless cyber attack of taking down some websites, but not launch any of the ones that would help win the war.
What possible explanation is there beyond that was all they could do?
You think the Russians really wanted to shut down the electricity, TV stations, roads and trains — but didn’t because they couldn’t.
I think they didn’t because they decided against doing so.
An honest disagreement there’s no point in discussing further.
Um...
I guess there’s something here I’m not getting.
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