The Ukrainian government has reportedly called on the country’s underground culture of hackers to help protect its critical infrastructure and conduct cyberattacks and spying missions against Russian troops.
Reuters reports that the Ukrainian government has called on underground Ukrainian hackers, who typically engage in ransomware, phishing, and other hacks of western companies, to help protect the country’s critical infrastructure and conduct cyber spying operations against Russian troops. Russian forces recently began attacks across Ukraine, now the country’s government has turned to rogue hackers to help protect vital operations.
Ukrainian servicemen sit atop armored personnel carriers driving on a road in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a military operation in Ukraine and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to American counterpart Joe Biden on January 27, 2022.
Yegor Aushev, the co-founder of the cybersecurity company Cyber Unit Technologies in Kyiv, told Reuters that at the request of a senior Defense Ministry official he made a post on a popular hacker forum this week stating: “Ukrainian cybercommunity! It’s time to get involved in the cyber defense of our country.” Aushev included an application submission via Google Docs in which he asked hackers to list their specialties and possible references.
Another source involved with the cybersecurity efforts confirmed that the request came from the Defense Ministry. Representatives from the Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Aushev stated that the volunteer hackers would be divided into defense and offensive cyber units. The defensive unit would focus on defending Ukrainian infrastructure such as power plants and water systems while the offensive unit would help the Ukrainian military to conduct digital espionage operations against Russian forces.
“We have an army inside our country,” Aushev said. “We need to know what they are doing.” A Ukrainian security official said earlier this month that the country did not have a dedicated military cyber force and added: “It’s our task to create them this year.”
Notorious hacking collective Anonymous has also declared “cyber war” on Russia.
The Daily Mail reports:
They said shortly before 10pm: ‘The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government.’
Around 30 minutes later, they announced that they had taken down the website of the Kremlin-backed TV channel RT, which broadcasts in Britain and has been heavily criticised for its coverage.
When MailOnline attempted to access the site this morning, it was still inaccessible and only displayed an error message that said ‘this site can’t be reached’.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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