Why Have Russian Cyberattacks Been Muted?

The Russia-Ukraine war has seen a lot of on-ground offensives. But in the cyber realm, Russia has been surprisingly muted.

• Russia is well known for its cyber-ops involving hackers taking down utilities in neighboring countries, releasing ransomware causing colossal losses or manipulating government elections.
• Ukraine has been at the receiving end of Russian cyberattacks since 2014, with one of the most notorious being a power-grid hack in 2015 which left 230,000 people without electricity for hours.
• Yet, in the ongoing war cybersecurity analysts have not seen many cyberattacks from Russia. Many say Russia doesn’t need these attacks, as the on-ground operations are causing immense damage.
• Hacktivists group 'Anonymous' and others have expressed solidarity with Ukraine and launched a bunch of cyberattacks on Russian government sites, TV stations and more.
• However, in the US, President Joe Biden has asked US businesses and critical infrastructure entities to beef up their cyber defenses against imminent Russian-origin cyberattacks.
• Is Russia holding out its cyber army and actively not executing cyberwarfare or has Ukraine’s counter digital resistance proved effective? Experts are debating both possibilities.