14 DAY TRIAL // A Russian senior military commander has revealed that the government wants to create special cyber warfare units by the year 2017. The role of these special units will be to defend the country’s cyberspace, particularly critical infrastructure of the armed forces.
According to RIA Novosti, Major-General Yuri Kuznetsov hasn’t provided too many details, but he has explained that the units will be created in stages until 2017.
It has already been known that Russia has such plans, but so far, the government has refused to reveal a date regarding the creation of the units.
Up until recently, the Russian government has attempted to keep a low profile as far as state-sponsored cyber espionage campaigns are concerned. However, last month, IT security company CrowdStrike published a report that detailed the activities of a hacker group called “Energetic Bear.”
Apparently, these hackers are operating on behalf of the Russian government, targeting tech firms, energy providers, academia, government agencies and defense contractors.