Russia Denies That It Attacked Georgia

The government of Georgia has accused Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) of launching a massive cyber-attack on their government and business organisations on 20th February. 

British and US Security Services have also issued official statements formally accusing the GRU and their 'Sandworm' unit for a cyberattack on Georgia, amid fears it could be the start of a wider destabilisation campaign.

Britain and US governments say the GRU was also responsible for carrying out a coordinated cyber-attack on thousands of Georgian websites which ocurred in October 2019  which knocked thousands of Georgian websites offline and disrupted national television broadcasts. This confrontation is considered the largest cyber-attack in Russian electronic history.

"The GRU's reckless and brazen campaign of cyber-attacks against Georgia, a sovereign and independent nation, is totally unacceptable," British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. 

"The Russian government has a clear choice: continue this aggressive pattern of behaviour against other countries, or become a responsible partner which respects international law."

The British government said its National Cyber Security Centre had decided Moscow was behind the Georgia cyber-attack "with the highest level of probability". 

The US State Department said the incident demonstrated "a continuing pattern of reckless Russian GRU cyber operations against a number of countries".

"The stability of cyberspace depends on the responsible behaviour of nations," the US statement said.

Fake messages usiing the image of controversial ex- President Kikheil Saakasvilli were reported as appearing on sites for the Georgian government, courts, NGOs, news media, and local businesses. In some cases, the web host disruption also took down broadcasting services for some radio and TV stations.

But while the attack and its aftermath was superficial and easily reversible, the mass fake messaging campaign caused domestic political tensionsinside Georgia, primarily due to the use of Saakashvili's photo.

This statement is not the first time the US, UK, and their allies have accused Russia's military intelligence of orchestrating cyber-attacks against foreign governments.

Previously, allies have called out Russia's GRU for cyber-attacks such as:

• BlackEnergy: December 2015 shut off part of Ukraine's electricity grid, with 230,000 people losing power for between 1 - 6 hours.
• Industroyer: December 2016 shut off part of Ukraine's electricity grid, also known as CrashOverride. It resulted in a fifth of Kyiv losing power for an hour. It is the first known malware designed specifically to disrupt electricity grids.
• NotPetya: June 2017 destructive cyber-attack targeting the Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors and affecting other European and Russian businesses
• BadRabbit: October 2017 ransomware encrypted hard drives and rendered IT inoperable. This caused disruption including to the Kyiv metro, Odessa airport, Russia's central bank, and two Russian media outlets

The October attack is not the first time Russia's state hackers attacked Georgia. In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognised the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and set up military bases there.

The Russia's Foreign Ministry has denied  the allegations that its was behind the large-scale cyber-attack on Georgia.

The Cyberwire:        France24:          Telegraph:          Fifth Domain: 

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