Lyce · Hybrid Watch
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Russian cyberattack on U.S. satellite operator Viasat’s KA-SAT network disrupts European communications and energy assets.
On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, hackers compromised the KA-SAT satellite network operated by Viasat, a U.S. communications company, in what is now widely known as the Viasat hack. Access was gained on 23 February 2022 through a VPN installation at a Turin-based ground-segment provider, after which the attackers pivoted to management servers that controlled large numbers of customer modems. Within hours they used those servers to push a malicious wiper, later dubbed AcidRain, to modems across the network, permanently disabling thousands of terminals. On 24 February, as Russian forces advanced, tens of thousands of Viasat modems went offline, including links used by the Ukrainian government and military, and remote control of some 5,800 Enercon wind turbines in Germany was lost because their communications channels depended on KA-SAT. Cybersecurity researchers subsequently identified AcidRain as a modular wiper sharing code similarities with VPNFilter, malware previously attributed to Russia’s military intelligence service Sandworm, indicating continuity with earlier GRU operations. In May 2022 the European Union, United States and United Kingdom jointly and explicitly attributed the attack to the Russian Federation, condemning it as part of Moscow’s broader campaign of destructive cyber operations around the invasion. The attack showed how targeting the ground infrastructure of a U.S. satellite operator could create cascading effects on communications, civilian infrastructure and renewable-energy assets far from the battlefield.
E/M/R/S scores
- EExistence0/4 · Not assessed
- MIntent0/4 · Not assessed
- RRussian actor link0/4 · Not assessed
- SRussian state responsibility0/4 · Not assessed
Facts
No facts
Sources
-
- Role
- discovery_lead
- Date
- 2022-02-23T23:00:00Z
On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, hackers compromised the KA-SAT satellite network operated by Viasat, a U.S. communications company, in what is now widely known as the Viasat hack. Access was gained on 23 February 2022 through a VPN installation at a Turin-based ground-segment provider, after which the attackers pivoted to management servers that controlled large numbers of customer modems. Within hours they used those servers to push a malicious wiper, later dubbed AcidRain, to modems across the network, permanently disabling thousands of terminals. On 24 February, as Russian forces advanced, tens of thousands of Viasat modems went offline, including links used by the Ukrainian government and military, and remote control of some 5,800 Enercon wind turbines in Germany was lost because their communications channels depended on KA-SAT. Cybersecurity researchers subsequently identified AcidRain as a modular wiper sharing code similarities with VPNFilter, malware previously attributed to Russia’s military intelligence service Sandworm, indicating continuity with earlier GRU operations. In May 2022 the European Union, United States and United Kingdom jointly and explicitly attributed the attack to the Russian Federation, condemning it as part of Moscow’s broader campaign of destructive cyber operations around the invasion. The attack showed how targeting the ground infrastructure of a U.S. satellite operator could create cascading effects on communications, civilian infrastructure and renewable-energy assets far from the battlefield.