A cyberattack on Russian satellites is an act of war, the invasion of Ukraine no

Russia considers it legitimate to invade another country but warns it will consider cyberattacks on its satellites an act of war.

Anonymous and the numerous hacker groups that declared war on Russia continue to target Russian government entities and private businesses.

Yesterday, the hacking group Network Battalion 65 (‘NB65’) which is affiliated with Anonymous, announced to have shut down the Control Center of the Russian Space Agency ‘Roscosmos’. According to the group, Russia lost control over some of its satellites due to the attack, anyway, it is likely that the attack was not so serious and the impact on the targeted servers was only temporary.

Absurd but true, Russia considers it legitimate to invade another country but warns it will consider cyberattacks on its satellites an act of war, warned Dmitry Rogozin, the director of the space agency Russian Roscosmos State Space Corporation, in a TV interview.

“I want to warn everyone who tries to do it that it is essentially a crime, which should be toughly punished. Because disabling the satellite group of any country is generally a casus belli, that is, a reason to go to war. And we will be looking for those who organized it. We will send all necessary materials to the Federal Security Service, the Investigative Committee, and the Prosecutor General’s Office for relevant criminal cases to be opened,” Rogozin said on Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) television.

Rogozin explained that cyberattacks against the satellite infrastructure of its country would also be considered crimes.

Rogozin added that the servers of the agency were not breached by the NB65 group, the Russian official called NB65 “scammers and petty swindlers.”

The agency also posted a tweet to make fun of hackers who support Ukraine:

This week, Rogozin also declared that the Russian space agency wanted British-based tech firm OneWeb to provide guarantees that its satellites are not going to be used against Russia.

Russia is threatening to cancel the planned March 4 launch of 36 OneWeb satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome (Kazakhstan) fearing the satellite could be used against its country.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, SIM swapping)