There have been many theories about the cyber criminals who should be charged for the NotPetya global cyber attack. While most of this finger pointed was speculative information, UK government takes a surprising position and publicly shames Russia for the terrible NotPetya ransomware/wiper attack which took place last year.
CIA, Ukrainian government, European agencies believe Russia to be responsible for NotPetya
The UK’s Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson throws accusations at Russia for breaking the rules of democracy, ruining lives and probably preparing similar cyber attacks in the future.
Authorities have also explained that the decision to make a public shoutout was made for one reason: to emphasize that UK won’t tolerate malicious activity from Russia or anywhere else. In 2018, similar accusations have been made against North Korea: the country is blamed for creating and spreading the WannaCry ransomware.
This is not the first time when NotPetya was attributed to Russia. In January of 2018, CIA reported that Russian Military is most likely to be the culprit behind the powerful wiper. The CIA stressed out that these allegations are not made lightly. The agency explains that it is confident that Russia’s GRU military intelligence unleashed the NotPetya virus.
Was Russia trying to hurt Ukraine with the NotPetya wiper?
The Ukrainian government was not too far behind when it comes to blaming Russia: Ukraine was one of the main targets of the wiper. If Russia really did the crime, the fact that Ukraine was one of the main targets makes perfect sense. After all, two countries have been stuck in a pointless feud for quite sometime now. European intelligence agencies were also finding Russia guilty for the NotPetya virus.
NotPetya wiper influenced many popular companies and caused massive financial losses. It is estimated that in total, victims of NotPetya suffered damages of $1.2bn. Many of the targeted businesses were Ukrainian partners in Poland, Germany, Italy, UK, Denmark and US. Surprisingly, some of the Russian companies were also attacked by NotPetya.
Could this have been the detail that was supposed to make Russia the victim instead of the culprit? It appears that Russia does not care what other countries are thinking: it pledges its innocence to this day.
Russian politics deny the accusations against their country. They state that these false statements are hate-driven, nothing more. Do you believe that Russia really did not have anything to do with NotPetya wiper? With so many law enforcement and government agencies pointing their fingers at the Russian military, it is difficult to believe a different scenario. However, one has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty.
Source: newsweek.com.
