Inside Cyber Warfare, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6. Cyber Attacks with Kinetic Effects

A terrorist attack by Ukraine in the center of Moscow? Lights are turned off in several buildings of Moscow City, elevators are stopped, and evacuation is underway. Is this Zelensky’s answer for [Russian Defense Minister] Shoigu’s turning off the lights in Kyiv?

Sergei Markov¹

Impacting the delivery of electricity by cyber means is not a frequent occurrence, but it is a threat that’s given wide attention by cybersecurity companies and government agencies responsible for protecting US critical infrastructure. Going further to cause an electrical fire or an explosion is even more rare, and that’s the focus of this chapter—manipulating the automated industrial control devices of a structure to create a fire or an explosion that results in property damage, injuries, and/or loss of life. These are known as cyber/physical attacks, or cyber attacks with kinetic effects. In military parlance, they are offensive cyber operations, or OCOs. 

In this chapter I’ll provide examples of cyber attacks that resulted in kinetic effects on the target. I’ll point out that, unlike traditional cyber attacks, there are no malware signatures or tell-tale tools, techniques, and procedures that defenders can use to stop them.

I’ll also introduce how Ukraine is using OCOs that pair cyber operators with Special Forces operators, resulting in much greater effects than a cyber/physical attack on its own.²

Finally, I’ll share my opinion that cybersecurity companies ...