Boston — a high official Ukrainian from cyber security argued that an army of hundreds of volunteer hackers recruited to combat Russia in cyberspace it is attacking only those it considers to be military targetsprioritizing government services such as the financial sector, the Kremlin-controlled press and trains.
Victor Zhora, deputy director of the state special communications service, also indicated that there have been about 10 hostile takeovers of Ukrainian government websites in order to spread false propaganda that his government had capitulated. He noted that most of Ukraine’s telecommunications and internet are fully operational.
Zhora told reporters in a teleconference that suspected Russian hackers were still trying to spread destructive malware in email attacks against Ukrainian officials, and — in what he calls a new tactic — trying to infect some citizens’ devices.
three examples of that malware they were discovered in the days before the invasion.
Zhora, speaking from a bunker in Kiev, said that one of the tasks of the ukrainian volunteer hackers is to try to obtain intelligence data that can be used to attack russian military systems. He noted that volunteers from the information technology sector in Ukraine were also directly targeting the Russian people with phone calls, emails and text messages. That includes sending videos and photos of dead Russian soldiers.
Zhora did not elaborate on the damage caused by the so-called Ukrainian Cyber Volunteers, a group created by a cybersecurity executive in conjunction with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry after the Russian invasion last week. civil executive, Yegor AushevHe also did not give details.
Aushev said he coordinates a group of more than 1,000 “cyber volunteers,” all enrolled through personal ties, to ward off enemy infiltrators.
So far, damage to Russian targets appears to be restricted to changing the appearance of websites, placing anti-war messages and descriptive images of death and destruction in the hope of mobilizing Russian public opinion against the invasion.
Hackers have also tried to shut down Russian government websites by flooding them with denial-of-service attacks, but Russian authorities have largely defeated those attempts.
The US Cyber Command has been advising Ukraine since before the invasion. The Ukrainian government does not have a military unit dedicated to cybersecurity.
Zhora said his government anticipates an increase in Russian cyber aggression, and welcomes continued assistance from global technology companies to help it defend against cyber attacks.