Suspected russian attacks on the west.

[adam2]

This thread is for known or suspected or threatened russian attacks on the West.
Including terrorism, cutting cables, cyber attacks, and sending fire bombs by courier.
Attacks on Ukraine DO NOT belong in this thread, such posts should be added to the existing thread.

[adam2]

Reports in todays Sunday Telegraph state that putin is "ready and willing" to mount a large scale cyber attack on the UK. Consequences could include large scale power cuts if grid infrastructure was attacked.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/20 ... cyber-war/ May require a subscription.

[Potemkin Villager]

Regarding the drone incursions at USAF bases in the UK the BBC report states :-

"A spokesperson for the British Ministry of Defence, which owns the bases, said: "We take threats seriously and maintain robust measures at defence sites.

"This includes counter drone security capabilities.

"We won't comment further on security procedures.""

Clearly these "robust measures" and "security capabilities" are inadequate which is why they probably won't comment further!

[BritDownUnder]

One would suspect robust measures mean 'we cant really do anything about it folks'.
Makes preparations more necessary for the UK and elsewhere.

I think there were two data cable cutting incidents in the Baltic recently that were thought to be the work of a Chinese merchant ship. Same of the Finland Estonia electrical cable some while ago. There was also a theft of a cable to Spitsbergen some time ago.
I still think that a failure of the Bass strait electrical cable between Australia and Tasmania was some form of sabotage.

Russia and its demented fellow travellers has a great capacity for mischief and sabotage having done this for 70 years during Communism. I would say the rail and electrical networks are particularly vulnerable.

EDIT: To add the crash of a DHL plane in Lithuania.

[Ralphw2]

DHL 737 aircraft ashes in LIthuania. One confirmed dead, 3 injured. Some rumours that it might be a successful Russian incendiary parcel attack. I have not seen a detailed report of the incident

I have seen video and heard atc Comms. Everything was normal until 5 seconds before touchdown. Either it was some catastrophic control failure or it was 'controlled flight into terrain'

The latter could be deliberate, pilot error , technical failure or sabotage of the glide path or spoofing of GPS altitude, although the latter seems unlikely

Update

Seen another video where the plane nose dives in the last 3 seconds. So either catastrophic failure or deliberate action.

[Forever_Winter]

Mines should be laid in the Gulf of Finland. When Russian ships blow up, we say 'not me guv'. We could blame dissident Russians for the outrage. Btw Putin looks very ill. Will he be around much longer????

Btw I'm living in Estonia right now; that is the sentiment....

EDIT TO ADD - need to sink Russian shadow oil tankers by using mines accidentally on purpose.....

Here is a question - why are the far right endorsing Putin in Romania? Bizarre...

[BritDownUnder]

I think the Russians killed the President of Poland by a GPS spoofing in 2010 - allegedly.

Let's hope the plane has a black box that has not been gotten at.

Mines should be laid in the Gulf of Finland.

Better to lay them near data cables. And also underwater traps to catch uninvited subs.

[Ralphw2]

Wirral Hospital closed to all except emergencies due to cyber issue. Fortunately the hospital I am currently visiting is not affected.

[Ralphw2]

An intitial (youtube) analysis of the the DHL crash is pointing to pilot error due to fatigue on final approach. The pilots made some errors in their ATC calls which probably caused them not to make radio contact with the control tower, the plane was approaching very fast which meant they connected with ILS tracking beacons late and high, requiring them to make significant control corrections in the final seconds of the approach, and the pilots were on the last leg of a very long shift in the small hours.

Nothing in the data to suggest any sabotage or external interference

[Potemkin Villager]

Media seems awash recently with lurid warnings about risk of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure
by various foreigners.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... -will-warn by trusted Starmer apparatchik Pat McFadden is a pretty typical example. He claims that:-

“Russia has targeted our media, our telecoms, our political and democratic institutions and our energy infrastructure,” and warns that “with a cyber-attack, Russia can turn the lights off for millions of people. It can shut down the power grids”.

The question I have is why has the cybersecurity of the national grid seems to have been allowed to degrade to such a level that this might even be considered plausible? You almost get the feeling the threat from Russia is being weaponised as a handy excuse for someone else to blame in case the lights do out for reasons that have nothing to do with cyber attacks!

[adam2]

I feel that the risks are increasing. The modern tendency is to utilise remote control via the internet for grid infrastructure, this reduces costs if compared to manning key control points. Also increases reliability of supply, If a major fault cuts of 100,000 customers for an hour, then that is 6 million "lost customer minutes" If instead remote control is fitted to switchgear, then the supply could perhaps be restored in ten minutes, which is only one million lost customer minutes, a six fold improvement. "look how well we are doing ! lost customer minutes are falling year on year"

Remote control from overseas would save even more money, russia, north korea, or iran would no doubt offer a good price for outsourcing such control.

Remote control is nothing new, but earlier systems were telephone based and much lower risk. Each item of say high voltage switchgear had a telephone number, and could be rung up, and a simple coded tone signal sent over the phone line. The telephone numbers were meant to be secret as were the tone codes. A determined enemy could no doubt obtain these, but each purloined number only gave control over ONE item.

[Potemkin Villager]

I feel that the risks are increasing. The modern tendency is to utilise remote control via the internet for grid infrastructure, this reduces costs if compared to manning key control points.

I agree risks are increasing and would argue this is in large part because of the "tendency ..to utilise remote control via the internet for grid infrastructure"! To my mind it is madness if there really is not an air gap between critical systems and the internet and the general telecoms network. I wonder who had that brilliant idea which lays the whole system open to external attack?

Electrical utilities probably have an extensive fibre optic data network already running parallel with overhead and underground wires so there seems no practical reason not to operate a secure stand alone system.

[Mark]

The question I have is why has the cybersecurity of the national grid seems to have been allowed to degrade to such a level that this might even be considered plausible? You almost get the feeling the threat from Russia is being weaponised as a handy excuse for someone else to blame in case the lights do out for reasons that have nothing to do with cyber attacks!

Nothing new - it's been going on since our old friend Maggie and her privatisation obsession....
For a case study, look at what's happened to the ownership of Electricity NW....

Ownership situation changes hands (again) in 2019:
https://www.enwl.co.uk/about-us/news/la ... ownership/
Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc - Japanese
Equitix - Fund Manager
CNIC - Chinese

ENW then flogged off yet again to the Spanish earlier this year (presumably after the Chinese had gleaned everything they could):
https://www.energylivenews.com/2024/10/ ... orth-west/
Iberdrola - Spanish
Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc - Japanese