ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - Experts say cyber attacks against Ukraine could be a sign of what's to come for the US and our allies, if tensions with Russia don't ease.
Johnathan Mell, Operations and Marketing Strategist at St. Louis-based Q-Net Security, says there is already evidence of psychological warfare against Ukrainian citizens. Mell explains that includes threatening messages posted on some computer systems and a series of attacks against banks where it appeared account balances had been wiped out.
"Gaining access there is less about taking data out, and more about putting things into the system just to unnerve people," she says.
Mell says there's a greater risk, the risk that critical infrastructure could come under attack, "there's lots of ways to spread misinformation, disinformation, and fear with cyber attacks, but when you think about how connected our world is and how much rely on the automated systems for our day to day lives to provide us power, to provide us clean water, that's very scary."
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One of the most common ways Russian state actors could access US computer networks is through phishing attacks -- emails that convince the computer user to click on malicious links, giving hackers an entrance.
Yet Mell points out that in the case of a world power, Russia might not waste time on that kind of strategy, instead throwing computer power to launch what are called "brute force attacks" to decode encryption and gain access to computer networks.
Federal agencies are warning American companies to shore up defenses against online hacks.
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