How dangerous will the Russian cyberattacks be to the western world?

[Hardkill]

Much recent news out there has been warning that all of western countries including all of the EU countries, U.K., Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, etc, need to prepare to deal with the strong possibility of being hit by cyberattacks from Russia. According to this NYT article, the USA especially needs to brace themselves for this because of how far behind the curve America is with their protective measures against compared to all of the other western countries throughout the entire world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/opinion/ive-dealt-with-foreign-cyberattacks-america-isnt-ready-for-whats-coming.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/smallbusiness/2022/03/04/small-business-ukraine-russia-ransomware-attack/9379667002/

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/us-banks-prepare-cyber-attacks-after-latest-russia-sanctions-2022-02-27/

This is very concerning to me. How worried should Americans and even people in other first world countries and perhaps those in other second world countries besides Russia be about this?

 

[Yarco]

IMO the biggest threat is widespread power outages. They could take the banking system (+ debit/credit cards) offline temporarily, but I assume there are enough backups in place that it could get back online pretty quickly.

Electrical grids everywhere are very interconnected. I remember living through this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

If you live in EU, if one country's power grid comes down and your country's grid is connected any way, it could take you offline and keep you offline. It would have a cascading effect:

One reason why the following is probably one of the dumbest things you could do:

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/europe-ukraines-plan-link-power-grids-2022-03-01/

If you link Ukraine's grid to the rest of Europe, Russia just has to launch a cyberattack on Ukraine to potentially knock out power for all of Europe.

Keep in mind that water pumping stations need electricity too. So if your electricity is off for longer than they can run backup generators, you won't be getting water either.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Yarco

[Preety_India]

Don't worry about it. The West can handle Russia, no big deal. 

[vizual]

1 hour ago, Preety_India said:

Don't worry about it. The West can handle Russia, no big deal. 

Their armed forces yes. I have no idea what’s going to happen if Putin feels so embarrassed, beaten down and desperate that he’s going to employ nuclear weapons. 

[Preety_India]

6 minutes ago, vizual said:

Their armed forces yes. I have no idea what’s going to happen if Putin feels so embarrassed, beaten down and desperate that he’s going to employ nuclear weapons. 

Considering the current political climate where nuclear weapons are a huge taboo, it's very unlikely that Putin will use these in the ongoing war. This war looks like a blunder to me. Most likely this so called operation would end prematurely given the buzz its been creating. Russia will back out at some point due to international pressure. His strategy can only be likened to a school kid going around throwing toy bombs. 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Preety_India

[Ananta]

4 hours ago, Hardkill said:

This is very concerning to me. How worried should Americans and even people in other first world countries and perhaps those in other second world countries besides Russia be about this?

 

Could it happen, sure it could! I've seen some shit in the past two years which was unbelievable to me. My bank accounts with a reputable bank were hacked...twice! Which caused my accounts to be frozen. Then, I had to reopen new accounts. Big pain in the ass!

A large hospital local to me was cyberattacked and their software programs with all their Hipaa protected documentation was held for ransom. They refused to pay it for 2 months and it was like they were in the dark ages, it was complete chaos.

This is just on a small scale I could only image wide scale cyberattacks, but no sense worrying about it either. It's beyond your control. 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Ananta

[Hardkill]

39 minutes ago, Ananta said:

Could it happen, sure it could! I've seen some shit in the past two years which was unbelievable to me. My bank accounts with a reputable bank were hacked...twice! Which caused my accounts to be frozen. Then, I had to reopen new accounts. Big pain in the ass!

A large hospital local to me was cyberattacked and their software programs with all their Hipaa protected documentation was held for ransom. They refused to pay it for 2 months and it was like they were in the dark ages, it was complete chaos.

This is just on a small scale I could only image wide scale cyberattacks, but no sense worrying about it either. It's beyond your control. 

You have a valid point. However, I am honestly terrible at managing such worries. I have generalized anxiety disorder and I always get scared of not being to do anything about it because it makes me feel like a powerless victim.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Hardkill