“We continue to help the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian occupation forces,” the group tweeted on Sunday. “The railway is under attack. … The manual control mode is on, which will slow down the train’s movement but DO NOT create emergency situations. It will NOT endanger ordinary citizens! ”
Cyber Partisans spokeswoman Yuliana Shemetovets told WIRED the team has grown in recent weeks. “Five new people, Belarusians, have joined the group since the war started,” she said. “Much more on the list needs to be verified.”
Meanwhile, the Conti and CoomingProject ransomware groups announced their allegiance to Russia last week. Soon after, more than 60,000 internal Conti messages were leaked, along with the message “Glory to Ukraine!” Rumors, presumably leaked by Conti affiliates, reveal details about the organization and operation of the group. On Wednesday, Conti seems to be dismantling its infrastructureevidence of the effects hacktivism can have, regardless of whether such protests directly shaped the course of the war.
On Thursday, security researchers at Trustwave SpiderLabs also published discovered that a pro-Russian entity, JokerDNR, published blog posts intended to embarrass Ukrainian officials and even claimed to annoy some Ukrainian government workers and military members by release names, addresses and other alleged contact information.
Several security companies and other organizations have released free versions of digital defense tools or extended free service to help Ukrainians secure their networks. For example, Google says its human rights-focused DDoS protection service Project Shield is currently using by more than 150 Ukrainian sites.
Hacktivists aren’t the only ones leaking data left and right. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian newspaper Pravda published a trove of personal data that is said to identify around 120,000 Russian troops deployed in Ukraine. And Ukraine’s IT Army has been working to use some hacktivist techniques in a more organized and strategic way.
“DDoS is all well and good, but it’s a blunt tool,” an IT Army participant who spearheaded the “November” told WIRED. and well-being of Russian citizens. Our primary concern is combating Russian disinformation about the conflict, by all means possible, and providing quality open source intelligence in an effort to preserve Ukrainian lives. “.
In a situation like the invasion of Ukraine, hacktivism can do more harm than good. Some researchers note that the worst case scenario for hacktivism would be an incident or series of attacks that inadvertently escalate a conflict or are used as a pretext for escalation by one party or another. across.
In addition, by calling attention to the cybersecurity shortcomings of highly sensitive digital networks and platforms, attackers could inadvertently expose friendly intelligence forces that hide there.
“The nature of hackerism is always loud and its intelligent nature is often quiet,” said incident responder and former NSA hacker Jake Williams. “Well-meaning attackers who raise their voice could inadvertently lead security forces to intelligence activity that may be taking place in that network and fly under radar control. So they basically lost access and lost access due to an investigation into a hacktivist attack. “
