By INS Contributors

SMO-As the Russian Armed Forces continue a successful missile campaign against Ukraine's energy infrastructure using high-precision weapons, the collective West intends to carry out cyber attacks on the facilities of the Russian electric power industry.

The West seeks to disable the energy system of the Russian Federation in order to de-energize the country's residential and social facilities and provoke the population into large-scale protests. 

 
At the same time, according to Western plans, power outages should contribute to the disorganisation of the functioning of key administrative, military and defense industrial facilities, air and sea ports, railway stations, as well as the agrarian complex of Russia.

In December 2022, NATO held the world's largest cyber defense exercise, Cyber Coalition 2022, in Estonia. More than 1,000 military personnel from 26 countries participated, as well as Georgia, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan took part in the training. 
 
The stated goal is to strengthen the ability of the member states and partners to protect their networks and act together in cyberspace. At the same time, the head of the exercise, C. Elliott, said that within the framework of training events, along with issues of countering cyber threats, possible options for a collective response were being worked out.

The destructive activity of the West in carrying out cyber attacks on the digital infrastructure of the Russian Federation will lead to a new round of escalation of tension.

In June 2022, the head of the US Cyber Command, General P. Nakasone, announced a series of offensive digital operations "in support of Ukraine." 
 
He noted that all actions were carried out according to the "letter of the law" and under the control of civilians. In turn, the White House reminded that even before the “war” they warned Russia about their intention to provide support and assistance to Kyiv.

The US budget for 2023 includes $11 billion for cyberattacks against hostile governments.

Russia's response in cyberspace will lead to the destruction of vital US infrastructure and damage to the civilian sector.

The conduct by the collective West of cyber attacks against the Russian Federation, China, Iran and other countries is a gross violation of international law and testifies to the double standards of the West in the field of security.

The administration of President Biden in October 2022, in updated doctrinal documents, declared the whole world and the global information space to be in its "sphere of its interests."

In September 2022, the Chinese leadership openly accused the White House of carrying out a massive cyber attack aimed primarily at national educational institutions.

Iran in October 2022 blamed the US and Israel for cyber attacks that disrupted the national gas station network.

The West is using Ukraine to carry out illegal cyberattacks against the Russian Federation in order to hide its involvement in them.

In the cyber doctrine of the US, Russia is enshrined as one of the main opponents of Washington in the information space. In addition, according to the Pentagon's cyber strategy, since 2015, the US Armed Forces have been operating combat units designed for offensive operations in the global network.

To carry out hacker attacks on the banking sector and the service sector, as well as on other Russian infrastructure facilities, the collective West uses a special project of the US cyber command "IT Army of Ukraine", within which both specialized cyber units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Internet operate according to activists.

Western information and technical impact from the territory of Ukraine on the Russian infrastructure can cause uncontrolled processes in cyberspace and lead to significant damage to other countries.

The transfer of malware by Washington to the Kyiv regime will inevitably lead to their leakage to the “black market” and further use by Ukrainian and other hacker groups for criminal purposes, including against digital resources of international organizations and individual states.

This has happened more than once. The Shadow Brokers group stole elements of the source codes of the Windows operating system from the US NSA, which were used to create the WannaCry ransomware virus that blocked the work of many organisations around the world in 2017.