OneWeb, a UK-based company active in the satellite internet services industry – has suspended all launches from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and ordered its staff to leave the cosmodrome. The company was supposed to launch several internet satellites on a Soyuz rocket, on 4 March. But on 2 March, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos announced it would only go ahead with the launch if OneWeb guarantees that the satellite would not be used for military purposes and the UK government divest its stake in the company. The response of the UK government was that ‘there’s no negotiation on OneWeb: the UK Government is not selling its share’.
Ukraine conflict
SWIFT will disconnect Russian banks on 12 March
SWIFT has confirmed that it will disconnect from the international payment system seven designated Russian entities (and their designated Russia-based subsidiaries) under the European Union sanctions on 12 March. The measure will be taken in compliance with legal instruction in EU Council Regulation 2022/345 of 1 March 2022.
UK asks Meta, Tik Tok to prevent access to RT
British Culture Minister Nadine Dorries wrote to Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook, urging them to prevent access to the state-run Russian television network RT in Britain.
United Russia reports new attacks on its servers
The IT infrastructure of United Russia, the ruling political party in Russia, remains under significant pressure due to hacking attacks, the party press service stated. The party press service noted that the attacks ‘began at 11:00 a.m. In parallel, there are hacking attacks on the party’s infrastructure, which increases the pressure on communication channels and worsens the operation of the party’s official site er.ru for users from Russia.’
The service claims that the party’s resources were attacked simultaneously by 280,000 devices from India, the USA, Brazil, Russia, and other countries on 2 March.
Roskomnadzor urges Telegram to delete bots gathering info on Russian servicemen
Russia’s telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor has asked Telegram to remove bots that collect information on Russian Armed Forces personnel.
According to the agency, the Telegram bots provide information about the soldiers of the Russian Forces who are allegedly on the lists of those captured or killed during the Ukrainian conflict.
Roskomnadzor has forwarded a demand to Telegram to delete the detected internet resources. Furthermore, this information has been sent to investigative agencies to prosecute those who are guilty, Roskomnadzor said.
Russia releases list of IPs and domains allegedly attacking its information resources with DDoS attacks
The Russian government has released a list of more than 17,500 IP addresses and 174 internet domains allegedly involved in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Russian information resources. The list includes the US FBI and CIA’s homepages, and other sites with top-level domain (TLD) extensions denoting they are registered through countries such as Belarus, Germany, Ukraine, Georgia, and the EU. The Russian government did not provide any proof backing up its claims about the IP addresses and domains on its list.
Roscosmos: intensity of cyberattacks from Ukraine declined after strikes upon its cyber-operation centres
According to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, the intensity of targeted cyberattacks on its digital infrastructure decreased after the strikes on the Ukrainian cyber-operation centres. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that ‘Russian troops fired precision-guided weapons disabling a reserve TV and radio centre in the Lysa Hora area in Kyiv, which the Ukrainian Security Service has been using for psychological operations against Russia.’
However, attacks from other parts of the world were continuing, Roscosmos noted.
Roscosmos CEO: Cyber attacks on Russian satellites would justify war
Russian space agency Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin stated that cyberattacks on the Russian satellite infrastructure are a casus belli – a reason to go to war.
Rogozin further noted that necessary materials will be sent to the Federal Security Service, the Investigative Committee, and the Prosecutor General’s Office for relevant criminal cases to be opened.
EU bans Russia Today, Sputnik
The EU banned Russia Today and Sputnik for inciting and supporting Russia’s military action against Ukraine, as well as destabilising neighbouring countries. The decision of the European Council takes effect immediately. EU operators will be prohibited from broadcasting, facilitating, or otherwise contributing to the dissemination of any RT or Sputnik content. The ban covers traditional broadcast channels, such as satellite TV as well as online platforms and apps.
Apple halts sales to Russia, restricts access to Russian state channels
Apple has halted all online sales of its products in Russia, which it usually ships to the country in the absence of physical stores. Apple has restricted access to apps for Russian state news channels RT and Sputnik to within Russia only. To protect people in Ukraine, Apple Maps no longer shows traffic in that country.