How the war in the Ukraine is being fought on the digital front

How the war in the Ukraine is being fought on the digital front

We’ve all been exposed to the ongoing crisis occurring in the Ukraine as Russian forces have made their way into the country and are heavily attacking major Ukrainian cities as they attempt to gain control of the capital city of Kyiv, causing nearly a million Ukrainian citizens to seek shelter in neighboring countries as of the time of writing.

The Ukrainian forces have been inspiring the world as they defend their country from this unprovoked invasion, and that defense is also occurring on the cyber front. We’ve reporting ourselves from time to time on Russian hacking gangs and their effects on the US. The Ukraine is not only defending their digital infrastructure during this war, but they are also responding offensively with what’s being dubbed the “IT Army”.

These volunteers to the Ukrainian government are conducting attacks on Russian led websites – some of which are currently serving propaganda on what’s really happening in the Ukraine to Russian citizens – and bringing those websites down. These also include sites belonging directly to the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense and more.

DDoS attacks are also occurring on Russian targets, being conducted by the hacker group Anonymous. They’ve made claims they’ve succeeded in taking down 1,500 Russian led websites and dumping more than 40,000 private Russian files on the Dark Web, including ones that came from the countries Nuclear Safety Institute.

SpaceX has also jumped into the fray, responding to pleas from the Ukrainian government to add Starlink as an option to keep necessary internet services online in case of a Russian disruption to the service. SpaceX quickly delivered 48 Starlink satellites with more on the way.

Also, in a move that’s literally slowing things down inside of Russia, it was discovered that a Russian led company had outsourced the main component of their EV charge stationed on along a major motorway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Ukrainian company that built the components used a backdoor to hack the machines, shutting them down and displaying anti-Putin messaging on the screen.

The Ukraine’s IT Army is also requesting assistance through the use of a Telegram channel belonging to the group, which as of time of writing has over 275,000 users. The IT Army is providing live updates on successful attacks on Russian led targets as well as attempting to communicate with Russian citizens as Russia leads a disinformation campaign has tried to unsuccessfully stifle public outage on this war.

It’s unclear what the outcome to the ongoing conflict will be at this moment, but this is an unprecedented moment in time marking the first time a war has a significant public digital elements involved.  We’re all aware at this point of Russia’s hacking capabilities, but it will be interesting to see if their abilities are strictly offensive as they’re now on the receiving end of the attacks.

We’ve created this timeline of notable Russian hacking gang linked cyber attacks that have occurred against the US and other countries in the last 15 years.

Russian Hacking In The Last 15 Years

Click to view the full size version.

 

We want to make a note that there has been some concern that this ongoing war between Russia and the Ukraine may lead to more cyber attacks on the US as the Russian economy has been significantly destabilized by sanctions enacted against Russia as a response to their attack on the Ukraine.

We’re uncertain if this will end up being the case, but if you’re having cybersecurity concerns for your business or just need some peace of mind, we would be more than happy to provide a consultation. You can schedule one here.

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This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, IT service provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/valleytechlogic.