Russian Sympathizers Likely Biggest Threat

Casey Ellis is Bugcrowd‘s founder and CTO. He said the alert reinforces the countries’ position that malicious cyber activity emanating from Russia is, in general, a clear and present danger to democratic countries.

“Since the start of this conflict, I’ve held the position that direct cyber-borne aggression emanating from Putin’s office is unlikely, given Russia’s own vulnerability to retaliatory cyber response, as well as the unpredictable escalation pathways to nuclear conflict that exist,” he said. “Those who sympathize with Russian interests, on the other hand, are not necessarily bound by these rules, so they represent the active and likely threat at the moment.”

This alert acknowledges the “somewhat blurry lines” between state-sponsored and state-sanctioned offensive activity emanating from Russia, Ellis said. Moreover, it directly calls out the concept of “friends of Putin” as a threat “we’re most likely to encounter.”