Australia: Issued Multinational Advisory on Russian-backed Cybersecuity Threats

On 20 April 2022, several international government agencies issued an advisory warning about Russian-backed cybersecurity threats since the invasion of Ukraine (namely the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre, and the United Kingdom National Cyber Security Centre, National Crime Agency, as well as the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative). The advisory recommends immediate action by all organisations, specifically on patching known vulnerabilities in systems, refreshing end-user training, using multi-factor authentication and monitoring remote desktop protocols. In addition, the advisory explains how Russian intelligence services can find vulnerabilities through extensive cyberattacks and lists significant actors, including unofficial cybercrime groups that have aligned themselves with the Russian government.