Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than two months ago, pro-Ukrainian hackers act throughout the whole world, in the shadows, to weaken the Russian government.
Pro-Ukrainian Hackers Drop Russian Symbols
These unknown hackers bring down personalities, public organizations supported by the Kremlin, or even organizations like Transneft, a huge oil pipeline operator close to the Russian government, the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Belarusian electricity supplier Elektrotsentrmontazh and even a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church which supported the war in Ukraine. The pro-Ukrainian hackers also targeted the Russian National Television and Broadcasting Corporation, known as the voice of the Kremlin and a veritable organ of propaganda.
The United States is preparing for the threatening arrival of quantum computers
Recently, it was the Russian hacker Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin who paid the price for pro-Ukrainian hackers. This man sat at the top of the FBI’s most wanted list for many years. The cybercriminal, backed by the Russian government, was suspected of cyberattacks on the German Bundestag and the organization of the 2016 Olympic Games, which were held in Rio de Janeiro. A few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, his own personal details (passport, Facebook passwords, cell phone number) were leaked online.
“Dozens of terabytes of data are falling from the sky”
According to the authorities, these pro-Ukrainian hackers are new players and unknown to cybersecurity experts. According to Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, researcher for cybersecurity group SentinelOne, “Russia is under attack on an unprecedented scale. Dozens of terabytes of data fall from the sky ». What strikes the researchers, it’s the nature of attackers. Historically, Russia was routinely attacked by higher-level hackers, most notably with the Five Eyes (an intelligence alliance comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand ) or the Chinese government.
Today, the scale of the leaks is simply staggering. For more than a decade, Ukraine’s government and financial systems have been abused by Russian state-sponsored hackers. Only in recent years, with the support of the US government, that Ukrainian defenses were able to cope with Russian aggression. Like this recently foiled cyberattack on the Ukrainian power grid. The researchers believe that the pro-Ukrainian hackers could belong to entities supported by governments of Western countries.