The revelation that French television channel TV5Monde was almost destroyed in April 2015 by a hack that most likely originated in Russia should surprise nobody who has been following the Kremlin’s aggression.
The hack, which was initially disguised as being by Islamic State cyber-jihadists, came within hours of shutting down TV5Monde’s network of 12 channels for good, the station’s director-general, Yves Bigot, said in an interview on Oct. 10 with the BBC.
The station only survived because technicians who were setting up a new channel happened to be on site, and were able to counter the hack.
This sophisticated attack was 10 weeks in the making, and required custom-made malware to carry it out. The investigation indicates that Russian hacking group APT 28 (a.k.a. Fancy Bears) was to blame, according to Bigot.
Fancy Bears and an associated group Cozy Bears (also known as APT 29) are thought to be behind a string of attacks in the United States, Germany and other nations. Recently, Fancy Bears openly took credit for the hacking of the World Anti-Doping Agency, revealing confidential medical records of U.S. and British athletes.
These hacking groups are linked to Russia’s federal security services, according to internet security firm Crowdstrike. These attacks go back for many years, including one on Central Election System in May 2014, during the country’s post-revolution presidential elections. There was also an attack on a Ukrainian regional power grid on Dec. 23, 2015 that knocked out power to thousands. Government. Banks. Broadcasters. Power grids. Each is serious enough, but imagine the chaos that would happen if all of them were attacked at once.
