The Russian Foreign Ministry warned of the risk of “total war” due to a technological error

The director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s information security department, Artur Lyukmanov, said in an interview with Newsweek that an error in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) could lead to “direct conflict” and “total war.”

He emphasized that the United States is increasing its offensive potential in the field of ICT and conducting operations against Russia using foreign structures, including the “IT army of Ukraine” and NATO “cyber laboratories” in Eastern Europe. Lyukmanov also noted that the US cyber strategy allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to “punish” other states for violations in the information space.

Lyukmanov said that American authorities, government funds and private companies are involved in preparing “cognitive wars,” which increases the risk of confrontations.

“We want to stop the situation from getting worse,” he said. He also noted that “a destructive computer attack on the Russian critical information infrastructure will not go unanswered,” and the West knows about this.

The West has repeatedly accused Russian or Russian-linked hackers of involvement in attacks on various infrastructure (government institutions, airports, hospitals). On September 7, members of the Trickbot group were sanctioned by the United States and Great Britain for allegedly having “connections with Russian intelligence services.” Washington said the targets of their attacks included the US government.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that there is no evidence of Russian involvement in cyber attacks. Lyukmanov, in a commentary to Newsweek, said that no convincing evidence of malicious Russian activities using ICTs was presented through two-way hotlines with Washington, specially created in 2013 to investigate computer attacks.