This Russian military malware attack was intended to permanently disable all computers in the Ukraine. However the action soon spread to the world wide web causing near catastrophic results on computer systems big and small with the costs of repair running into untold hundreds of millions of dollars. The story reads like a script for a Hollywood disaster movie and it begs the question of how close things came to an even bigger systems blackout/breakdown. Will hostilities continue to escalate with the possibility of yet more damaging Malware attacks in the future? The theory presented in this article is that this attack was intended not only for the Ukraine but also its American and European Union allies for the crippling sanctions imposed on Russia over the ongoing border crisis. I borrowed the following statement from wikipedia concerning the nature of the sanctions:
(In response to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, some governments and international organisations, led by the United States and European Union, imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and businesses. As the unrest expanded into other parts of eastern Ukraine, and later escalated into the ongoing war in the Donbass region, the scope of the sanctions increased. Overall, three types of sanctions were imposed: ban on provision of technology for oil and gas exploration, ban on provision of credits to Russian oil companies and state banks, travel restrictions on the influential Russian citizens close to President and involved in the annexation of Crimea.[11] The Russian government responded in kind, with sanctions against some Canadian and American individuals and, in August 2014, with a total ban on food imports from the European Union, United States, Norway, Canada and Australia.)
A Dutch and Australian govermment investigation found that a Russian rocket was used for the downing of Malaysia Airline’s Flight MH17 in 2014 over the Russia-Ukraine border which killed 283 passengers and 15 crew members. The Russian government has denied its military forces were involved.