Cybersecurity company Bitdefender is teaming up with the Romanian National Cybersecurity Directorate (DNSC) to help Ukraine as it tries to survive the recent Russian invasion.
In a joint official statement, the two organizations said they would provide cybersecurity expertise, threat intelligence and technology (such as antivirus solutions, for example) free of charge to anyone who supports the people of Ukraine and their allies.
Bitdefender's cybersecurity technologies will also be provided free of charge for one full year to any NATO or EU-based company or public entity wishing to replace their current endpoint protection software that has "trust issues" from a point of view. from a technical or geopolitical point of view (read: cybersecurity solutions linked to Russia and its allies).
Third World war?
"Romania believes that cyberspace should be safe and resilient, and that no geopolitical or military interest should affect people's lives and their businesses," the statement said. "We invite all NATO member states and the European Union to contribute to this effort."
Although this decision has been provoked by the recent war in Ukraine, in reality Russia has been involucrada in a cyber war that has activated time pressure. In fact, the Russian Foreign Ministry's director of international information security, Alexander Krutskikh, speaking at a political science conference late last year, called the events "the third guerra Mundial".
“The media rightly say that this is a third world war, and what matters now is calculating the damage and determining who will lose it in the end and what shape the world will end up taking as a result of this war,” said the Washington Examiner, citing the official
In this war, Russia seems to be militarizing ransomware operations very well. Earlier this month, Chainalysis market analysts warned that most of the money generated by ransomware operations ends up in the hands of Russian-speaking malicious actors.
Chainalysis says that 74% of all money stolen through ransom demands in 2021 went to Russian-linked threat actors in one way or another, amounting to more than $400 million in cryptocurrency.
One of Russia's most popular ransomware groups, Conti, also recently had 60.000 of its chat messages leaked by Ukrainian cybersecurity researchers.
“We are deeply saddened by the brutal and unprovoked act of war against the free people of Ukraine and we are committed to doing everything we can to support them and our NATO allies,” said Florin Talpes, Bitdefender co-founder and CEO. "As proud Romanians and as a society of global citizens, we stand with our neighbors to the north who are fighting bravely for their future."