Russian hackers want to ‘disrupt or destroy’ UK infrastructure, minister warns

theguardian.com:

Russian hackers organised along the lines of the paramilitary Wagner group are seeking “to disrupt or destroy” parts of the UK’s critical national infrastructure, a cabinet minister will warn at a cyber conference in Belfast on Wednesday.

Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, will issue a national alert to key businesses amid growing international concern that as Russia struggles in Ukraine, an under-pressure Kremlin is searching for new ways to threaten the west.

US intelligence that leaked earlier this month warned that Russian hackers had claimed to have taken over control systems belonging to a Canadian gas pipeline at the end of February, with the aim of causing an explosion.

Dowden is expected to tell the Cyber UK event that disclosing the threat is “not something we do lightly”. He will argue it is necessary to get companies in utilities and other critical sectors to realise they have to invest as needed in cybersecurity “to defend themselves and the country”.

He will describe the adversaries as “ideologically motivated, rather than financially motivated”, adding that they are less likely to show the same level of restraint as those directly employed by a nation state, making the situation “particularly concerning”.

A top-secret intelligence snippet in the Pentagon files that leaked earlier this month warned that a Russian cybercriminal group called Zarya had claimed to have taken over the control systems of the unnamed pipeline. The hackers then asked the country’s FSB spy agency for instructions on what to do next.

The hackers “shared screenshots” with the FSB “alleging capability to increase valve pressure, disable alarms and initiate an emergency shutdown of an unspecified gas distribution station”, according