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Why politically motivated cyberattacks might be the new normal

Photo by Adam Glanzman/Northeastern University


“Initial reports suggested that this was a variant of an existing strain of ransomware,” said Wil Robertson, assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern, who specializes in detecting and preventing web-based attacks. “But it turns out that it was designed purely for destructive purposes.”

The malware originated in Ukraine on the eve of the country’s Constitution Day, leading one computer scientist to speculate that it was “aimed at generating chaos, not money.” According to a New York Times report, many Ukrainians have cast their suspicions on Russia as the culprit.

Was this a state-sponsored attack? John Manferdelli, executive director of Northeastern’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, is not 100 percent sure. But he said “it certainly smells bad,” referring to the high probability that Russia is the source of the virus.

Manferdelli himself is the former engineering director for production security development at Google. He noted that “cyberattacks are nothing new,” explaining that hackers have been using ransomware and stealing intellectual property for years. But he added that politically motivated hacking might be on the rise, the new normal. “People forget that cyberattacks were quite common five or even 10 years ago,” he explained. “What’s different now is the motivation.”

Robertson agreed, saying that we’ll “certainly see more and more nation-state malware cropping up as cyberspace becomes more militarized as a way to achieve geopolitical goals.”


Robertson and Manferdelli advised ransomware victims not to pay up, even if doing so would allow them to recover their data. “Typically you don’t want to pay the ransom, because there’s no guarantee that you’d get your files back and you’re really just sending money to a criminal enterprise,” Robertson explained.

Carla Brodley, dean of the College of Computer and Information Science, noted that people could protect themselves from future ransomware attacks by updating their software and backing up their data. Running an out-of-date system, she said, is a surefire way to be hit with the next WannaCry- or Petya-like attack. “When your auto update pops up on your computer screen when you’re watching Orange is the New Black,” she said, “stop binge-watching the show and update your system immediately.”

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