South Africa came out as one of 135 countries that the US claims Russian government employees targeted between 2012 and 2017 as part of two massive hack campaigns allegedly aimed at disrupting energy companies and critical infrastructure., the aim was to undertake a sophisticated campaign to target, compromise, and maintain continued access to the networks of critical infrastructure and energy companies worldwide.
“We are aware that, daily, cybercriminals are actively targeting various sectors, including ours. We have an information and cybersecurity team and tools that assist us with combatting attempted attacks and for security reasons will not share the details of these,” Eskom said. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation said that if Russia managed crack into the countries’ said companies, it would allow the Russian government to disrupt and damage their systems if they so wished.
A US government agency responsible for nuclear power plants and a Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant were among the claimed targets and reportedly got attacked by hackers. The US government offered a reward of up to $10-million for information on three accused individuals from Russia. The FBI declared these individuals international flight risks.