August 7, 2014 By Richard Stiennon
Way last April, a time when the world seemed a more peaceful place, Leon Panetta and Richard Clarke were quotedwarning of impending Russian cyber attacks in the wake of an escalating response from the West to Russia’s intransigence in the Ukraine.
While there have certainly been a spate of defacements that are two sided and confusing to sort out during this burgeoning conflict, there has been nothing as dramatic as the Estonia ’07, or Georgia ’08 attacks.
But things have changed. In the wake of the downing of passenger jet MH17 the European Union and United States have come together to impose combined economic sanctions against Russia. According to the New York Times thesanctions include “the closing of European capital markets to Russian state banks, an embargo on new weapons sales and the transfer of sophisticated oil drilling technology.”