Lupovis, the UK-based cybersecurity company, said its specialists gathered data on the attacks using online decoy systems, according to Agentstvo. Servers that struck the traps had been used earlier by Russian groups, Lupovis CEO Xavier Bellekens told Politico.
Bellekens did not name a specific group but said "the circle is fairly narrow." He said the intruders' technical knowledge and the systematic nature of the attacks pointed to a Russian trail.
The two waves hit refrigeration equipment in European stores overnight on October 11-12 in France and overnight on November 2 in nine other European countries. The hackers switched the units into defrost mode, raising the temperature inside the cold chambers.
Andrea Margelletti, director of the Centro Studi Internazionali analysis center, said the choice of target sends European governments a political signal. Charles van der Walt, a specialist at Orange Cyberdefense, pointed to the psychological effect: little economic damage, a great deal of attention.
Sergei Boiko, co-founder of the Internet Protection Society, said on TV Rain that Russia's involvement was possible but could not be stated for certain. There is no evidence of Moscow's involvement in the attacks. A representative of the Belgian cybersecurity agency said the organizers' identities might never be established.