back to article Two Russians sanctioned over cyberattacks on US critical infrastructure

Flying under the radar on Clownstrike day last week, two members of the Cyber Army of Russia Reborn (CARR) hacktivist crew are the latest additions to the US sanctions list. Yuliya Vladimirovna Pankratova and Denis Olegovich Degtyarenko, named by the US government as CARR's leader and attacker-in-chief respectively, were …

  1. martinusher Silver badge

    Public Internet and SCADA

    A lot of SCADA systems run on a version of Windows so connecting them to the Internet is an open invitation for some script kiddie to find and play with them. Trying to make out that this is a serious threat from a state actor falls into the "It all makes work for the working man to do" category -- the technology to make these systems useful but still hard to play with has been around for 40 years or more (yes, older than the Internet).

  2. heyrick Silver badge

    CARR is also said to be responsible for...

    I keep on saying this...

    Why are these systems connected to the public internet?

    1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

      Re: CARR is also said to be responsible for...

      Why are these systems connected to the public internet?

      How else could ClownStrike protect them? But part of the problem with cloudybollocks. Devices 'must' be able to connect to the Internet to check they're correctly licenced etc.

  3. thames

    El Reg said: "For example, Mikhail Vasiliev, a 34-year-old former LockBit affiliate dual national of Canada and Russia, was arrested in 2022 after entering Canada on a trip – away from the Kremlin's protection."

    Er - Vasiliev lived in Canada, having immigrated from Russia two decades prior to that. He was arrested at his home north of Toronto, and his home had been raided by police several months prior to that when they collected evidence against him. He was stupid enough however to keep at it though and was caught in the act the second time with the Lockbit login screen open on his laptop when they arrested him the second time. Most of the rest of the LockBit gang lived in Ukraine and had already been arrested there. Connections between LockBit's and Russia were rather tenuous at best.

    Of course CARR and LockBit were complete amateurs at causing disruption compared to Crowdstrike.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      El Reg apologises for the misinformation and accepts the correction ..... @thames?

      ..... for both of those tales cannot be correct at the same time whenever each of them presents and reveals stories quite different. And whenever one’s perception is so easily deceived and manipulated by inaccurate reporting, is one’s personal picture of the greater existence[s] that abounds around that which you do not actually see or experience yourself, distorted by both the unintentional innocent rereporting of fake misinforming news and the wanton and wilfully dishonest discharge of malformation for toxic tales which create a time and spaces in which virtual reality expects to survive and thrive in the service of artificial intelligence supporting and tendering to almighty ignorance.

      And to imagine that sustainable and acceptable in any world where there be even the slightest chance and therefore very probable, highly likely existence and presence of SMARTR* and almightily intelligent beings, is surely proof positive of an ignorant stupidity ripe ready for enlightenment and edutainment with future wares beyond their knowledge and understanding ...... should one imagine, of course, such being a better course of future affirmative remote virtual control ACTion** than a series of similarly very easily applied and remotely executed highly destructive and deadly extinction events for there’s no point in flogging a dead horse bound for the knacker’s yard, is there.

      Where do think humanity sits today in that tale for tomorrow and the future to struggle with and ponder engagement with, and are such questionings more likely to be considered and designated as a real live, see-actualising, existential threat rather than being realised an unprecedented heavenly treat to be tempted to prove itself and its worth, one way or the other, as opposed to events happening autonomously with zero sympathetic regard for affected third party wishes and needy heartfelt desires?

      And ..... and this you must surely realise is already a current and terrifying real live present day possibility in secret development for future administrative execution ...... whenever easily weaponised and diligently constantly refined and reconfigured to remain practically invisible, virtually invincible and against which there is no possible successful defence nor punitive attack vector, what would you like to see/read about happening?

      Just asking .... to know more than enough than be necessary for consideration of Future ACTivIT deployments surrounding the present perilous state of humanity/Earthly existence ..... ie give natives a rapidly disappearing last chance at providing SCADA Systems*** input/output to save themselves from a lifetime of increasing pain and debilitating deprivation ..... SCADA Systems Depravity

      SMARTR* ...... SMARTR Mentoring Analysis Reporting Titanic Research

      ACTion** ...... Advanced CyberIntelAIgent Traction

      SCADA Systems*** ..... Supervisory Control Analysing Data Acquisition Systems

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