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Last month, a satellite from the Californian company Viasat was taken out of service by hackers. The attack affected tens of thousands of customers in Europe and Ukraine, including 2,000 German wind turbines that have still not been repaired. Several intelligence agencies are investigating the attack, but all eyes are obviously on Russia.
Viasat’s satellite has raced around the earth in orbit since 2011, providing internet to homes, businesses and military installations. However, when Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, the connection was cut. A mysterious cyberattack has disabled the satellite.
From the first days of the war, the attack on the satellite caused a loss of crucial communications for the Ukrainian military, which quickly led to Russia being considered a potential culprit. Many details of the hack have yet to be revealed, but the consequences are widely felt. Satellites play an important role during the war in Ukraine: they are used to record information about the movements of Russian troops and are an essential means of communication.
“Overflow”
The cyberattack seems to be a good example of what is called “spillover”, where the consequences are felt by actors outside the target. Indeed, by putting this satellite out of service, it is also the German energy sector that has been affected.
Nearly a month after the attack, the disruptions continue. At least 2,000 wind turbines from the German company Tobi Windenergie Verwaltungs are currently still out of service. The turbines can fortunately continue to spin, but they cannot be reset remotely in the event of a malfunction. A company spokesperson estimates that a total of 11 gigawatts of capacity was unusable within hours of the attack.
Satellite internet providers in Germany, the UK, France and the Czech Republic also saw their services disconnect due to the attack on Viasat. The European cybersecurity agency says it is aware of 27,000 users affected by the outage.
Russian attack plan
Satellite connections are often used in areas where cable coverage is poor, such as in remote areas with wind turbines. Satellite connections are also widely used in Ukraine. Besides their current military application, these connections are used to track government spending and, in 2012 – during parliamentary elections – to monitor the ballot.
No government has officially attributed the attack on the Viasat satellite to Russia. However, experts claim that this hack would be in line with the Russian attack plan. The US National Security Agency (NSA) is currently investigating the hack.
cyberwar
If the hack is indeed attributed to the Kremlin, it would shed new light on a possible cyberwar between the West and Russia. Cybercrime experts find it remarkable that the country has not yet been able to stage successful large-scale digital attacks. It is possible that Russia is deliberately keeping a low profile or that it does not have the necessary numerical influence.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden warned of possible Russian attacks on US infrastructure.