A project to provide free protection for critical infrastructure, launched after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has ended. It was shut down despite continuing threats, including from Russia and Iran.
A project to provide free protection for critical infrastructure, launched after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has ended. It was shut down despite continuing threats, including from Russia and Iran.
As TechRadar reports, the Critical Infrastructure Defense Project, a partnership between Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, and Ping Identity, has concluded its four-month program of providing free cyber protection to hospitals, water utilities, and energy companies in vulnerable sectors across the United States.
The Critical Infrastructure Defense Project was launched in February 2022 amid growing cyber threats to the United States. Participants include major security players: Cloudflare (network protection), CrowdStrike (antivirus and threat analytics), and Ping Identity (account security).
Organizations could use Zero Trust, antivirus solutions, identity protection systems, and threat analytics. The idea of the project was to quickly increase the resilience of critical infrastructure after the start of full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
However, as CrowdStrike explained, the use of the program decreased over time — and in the face of less interest from infrastructure facilities, the initiators decided to close it. Now, instead of the program site, the Cloudflare homepage opens.
At the same time, the timing of the program’s termination raises questions. Experts suggest that the Trump administration may have slowed down some initiatives to counter Russian cyber threats. At the same time, NATO is warning of new attempts by Russian hackers to map critical infrastructure, including undersea Internet cables.
As the situation in the Middle East worsens, risks from Iran are also growing. This country has repeatedly attacked American facilities, including water purification systems.
As a reminder, our feed featured a story about how cyber specialists from the Main Intelligence Directorate carried out a series of powerful cyberattacks on key Russian state and commercial services. From June 10 to 12, the Russian tax and customs services were targeted, paralyzing their internal document flow for a while.
