- We're living in a world
that's experiencing wars in a whole new way.
We're closer to the conflict than ever.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine
has helped us see just how different war looks
in a connected world.
A lot of us feel removed from the conflict zone, but are we?
With looming cybersecurity concerns
and warnings from government officials worldwide,
Russia's war is going digital.
On February 24th, 2022, Russia began what it called
a special military operation in Ukraine.
News outlets soon reported that the Russian military
had launched a full-on invasion to take over the country.
Over a month later, the war is still in full force
and neither side shows signs of surrendering.
We've seen a lot about the military impact
and the economic impact but one thing
we haven't heard as much about is cybersecurity.
Concerns of cyber attacks have been present from the start
and government officials are warning
that we may see cyber attacks any day now.
US president, Joe Biden, said in a recent press conference,
"The magnitude of Russia's cyber capacity
"is fairly consequential, and it's coming."
But why should we even think there's a threat?
What is Russia really capable of?
Well, you may recall in May of last year,
there was a pipeline outage
that caused gas shortages and prices to surge.
This outage was caused by a cyber attack
and it's believed that the hacker group has Russian ties.
While there's no evidence that the Russian government
was directly involved in this incident,
it just goes to show you what their country is capable of.
And back in June, a US meat packer company
got hit with a cyber attack
that caused supply chain and production issues.
They ended up paying an $11 million ransom
to get their facility back up and running
and it's all also believed
that this hacker group has Russian ties.
Both of these attacks highlight Russia's ability
to affect critical infrastructure in the US
and with the conflict raging on,
we may see Russia turning to alternative methods of combat.
Regardless of what physical attacks may look like,
Russia might be ramping up cyber attacks
due to increased sanctions
other countries have been placing on them.
Even private companies like Visa and MasterCard
have cut off access to their network
and Russia can't continue on like this forever.
There's gotta be backlash coming.
So, what could a Russian cyber attack look like?
I'm splitting this up into two categories:
infrastructure and personal attacks.
In infrastructure, you have cell networks, airlines,
pipelines, cross country freight, and power grids.
The Russian government may attack
this critical infrastructure in the US or other countries
and these are things
that we can't do anything about individually.
However, governments and private companies worldwide
are already consulting with security experts
to tighten their security
but there are other types of attacks
on a more individualized level.
Things like brute force attacks,
backroom security compromises
that companies like Google, Facebook, PayPal,
CloudFlare, and AWS, and things like ransomware
or malware attacks on personal devices.
There's things you can do to take action
and prevent these attacks from happening
but why does it really matter?
What is a brute force attack
or a backroom security compromise?
What does it mean for you in your daily life?
Is it really something that you need to be concerned about?
At an infrastructure level,
we could see costs of goods rising
due to inefficiencies and supply chains from downtime.
We could also see outages
that affect travel and everyday life.
At a personal level, things may be much more crippling:
bank accounts, email addresses, social security numbers.
These are the types of things
the Russian government may be targeting,
so they can steal your identity
or mine personal data to sell
or even pull money from your bank accounts
or crypto wallets.
In all of this,
it's good to be aware of what's happening in the world
and take some basic steps to protect yourself.
There's no need to panic.
And, like I mentioned earlier,
security experts are already working
with governments and private companies
to harden security and prevent these attacks
but there are also steps you can take
to prevent attacks from happening as well.
The ways you can protect yourself against personal attacks
would be to secure your online accounts,
secure your data, and protect your devices.
If a hacker is targeting a bunch of accounts
and you have a basic password like 1234,
of course they're gonna be able to get into your account
but someone else who's using proper security tactics
may not have their account compromised.
One of the ways you can avoid
using the same insecure password on every website
or using 1234 as your password
is to use randomly generated passwords on each website.
You might be wondering,
"How am I supposed to keep track
"of all of these different passwords?"
And that's where a password manager comes in.
Bitwarden is a free one that I recommend
and I personally use 1Password,
which is available for just a couple bucks a month.
I'll have links to these tools in the description below
as well as comparison videos
where you can find out which one is right for you.
You should also consider deleting old accounts
on websites you don't use anymore.
Sometimes you can log into your account
and just click the account section and find a delete button.
And other times you can reach out to their customer service
and ask that your account data be deleted.
If it's not an account you're gonna use,
there's no reason to have your personal data
sitting on a server somewhere.
That server could be a target for an attack
and your personal data could get out.
So if you're not using it, delete it.
The next way to improve your online security
is to use two-factor authentication.
This is where when you put in your password on a website
and click sign in, it will ask you for a unique code.
Sometimes it's a text code
or sometimes there's an authenticator app,
like Authy or Google Authenticator,
which you launch on your phone,
get the code, and type it in.
If you aren't using two-factor authentication,
pause this video, go set it up on your important accounts
like your bank accounts, your email address.
Make sure to get that done and set it up.
I know it's kind of a hassle,
it's a little bit annoying to deal with
but it really, really protects your account.
If you want to take this to the next level,
you can use what's called a physical security key.
What is the physical security key?
I'm glad you asked.
It's this device right here.
It's got USB, so I can plug it into my computer
after I sign in to a site, tap right here,
and it authenticates
or if I've got my phone, it's got NFC on it,
I can just tap it to the back of my phone after I sign in
and it authenticates.
So it's the same exact thing as two-factor authentication,
except I have to physically hold this key
to get into my accounts
and I don't have to bother with randomly generated codes
that change every 30 seconds.
Another way that you can protect yourself online
is by using a VPN.
A virtual private network, or VPN,
encrypts your internet traffic,
so prying eyes can't see what you're doing.
Typically, without a VPN, your internet service provider
or that public WiFi network you're on at a coffee shop
can see everything you're doing online.
But a VPN shuts that down, it makes sure that those networks
can't see what you're doing
and it also masks your IP address.
Mullvad and Surfshark
are some of my favorite VPNs at the moment.
I'll have them linked below
as well as a link to some comparison videos
on which VPN is best for you.
Another thing you'll want to do
is double-check your device's antivirus
and make sure it's up to date.
If you're using Windows, go into Windows Defender
and make sure it's active, running, and updated.
And if you use a third party antivirus,
you should do the same.
I'm not a huge fan of third party antivirus on Windows
but if you have one that you like
and it works for you, that's great.
Just make sure that everything's good with it
and it's running smoothly.
If you're on a Mac, I do recommend using Malwarebytes
to scan your Mac every so often for spyware.
Macs generally don't need antivirus softwares.
They kind of have one built-in but they can collect spyware.
So, I use a free version of Malwarebytes
to scan my Macs every so often
and it has caught stuff before.
And speaking of updates,
always make sure your device's operating system
is running the latest version.
You do not want to be using an outdated version of the OS
because as hackers come up with new attacks,
these companies are patching operating systems quickly
and pushing out updates.
But if you don't have the latest update, guess what?
Your device is still susceptible to these old attacks
that have already been patched
and it would be really unfortunate for something to happen
if you could have prevented it
by just updating your software.
Also, make sure you have protection in place
against identity theft.
The number one way you can do this
is make sure your credit is frozen.
Go to the credit bureaus in the US,
there are three main ones:
Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.
Just look up their website.
Look up "How to freeze my credit".
It's free to do, it's easy to do.
And this makes sure that someone can't open a credit card
or get a loan in your name.
I don't think you necessarily need to pay
for an identity monitoring service,
although you can if you'd like to
but make sure your credit is frozen
and make sure you use a credit monitoring service
like Credit Karma, which is free.
So that way, if something did happen,
and if an account was fraudulently opened in your name,
you can take care of it right away,
which gives you the best chances at disputing it.
And for all you NFTers and crypto people,
I highly recommend using a hardware crypto wallet
to store your assets.
This is where you have a physical device
and your assets are stored locally instead of in the cloud.
Because if you're using a digital crypto wallet
that's in the cloud, that wallet could get hacked
and someone could take all of your assets.
But if they're stored locally on a hardware crypto wallet,
someone would have to physically steal that wallet
to take your assets from you.
These are some tactful ways to keep yourself protected
from potential cybersecurity threats.
Whether Russia takes this war digital or not,
these strategies will strengthen your online profile
and make it harder for hackers to get access to your data.
We don't know how this conflict is going to play out
but one thing is clear:
because of the magnitude of the internet,
wars will never be the same again.
I think one reason
that Ukraine has been doing so well on this war
is because of the power of social media.
Wars don't happen behind closed doors anymore.
The Ukrainian government and citizens
have done a fantastic job
communicating exactly what's happening.
And the result has been the entire world
holding Russia accountable
through sanctions and other means.