On one of Canada’s unnamed gas pipelines, a cybersecurity incident occurred on February 25 this year, which, according to local officials, could even cause a combustible substance to detonate and incur human casualties. They blame the Russian-speaking hacker group “Zarya” for everything, presumably based on the territory of the Russian Federation.

A senior cybersecurity official in Canada said that pro-Russian hacktivist groups are constantly attacking organizations in the critical infrastructure sector, and this is not the first such attack.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, also confirmed the cyberattack on the gas pipeline, but emphasized on the fact that the attack did not cause any physical damage to the energy infrastructure and that information about a potential explosion is not true.

According to local sources, the hackers were able to show that they had the ability to pressurize a control valve, turn off an alarm, and even cause a gas station power outage. However, after penetrating the network, cybercriminals did not take any destructive actions for an unknown reason.

According to local law enforcement agencies who were investigating what happened, the cyberattack was aimed primarily at causing the maximum possible economic damage to Canada’s energy infrastructure. As you can see from the information above, any damage has most likely been avoided.

The threat from pro-Russian hacktivist groups carrying out destructive attacks was previously stated by British Cabinet Secretary Oliver Dowden. He said that in the past, these same groups have tried to cause maximum damage to the critical national infrastructure of the UK.

The hacktivist movement is often not controlled in any way and by no one, so such cybercriminals can act on the basis of their own moral values ​​and ideological attitudes. But regardless of whose interests such groups act, their crimes cannot be justified in any way, and all their actions are illegal.