The Russia-Ukraine invasion is a battle that refuses to go away, whether it’s Anonymous claiming to have taken down the Control Center of the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, or a Ukrainian components company creating electric car charging stations spewing comments like “Putin is a dickhead.” Furthermore, the Ukrainian government is now urging cyber-security specialists – as well as other non-professionals – to join an “IT army” in the war against Russia. On Saturday, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, invited citizens to join the “army.”
“We’re forming an information technology army. We require digital experts “Fedorov stated on Twitter that all assignments will be distributed to the army via Telegram.”Everyone will be given a task. On the cyber front, we continue to battle. The first duty is for cyber professionals on the channel.” According to Gizmodo, the cyber army was first asked to perform denial-of-service (DDOS) operations against 31 targets, including government agencies, Russian banks, and Russian enterprises. People with less cybersecurity skills were asked to report YouTube videos containing conflict disinformation in the hopes of having the videos deleted.
It’s unclear whether the attack is linked to the IT army, but other high-profile hacks on Russian websites have occurred in recent days. In one Anonymous hack, anti-war slogans were displayed on numerous significant Russian news sources. “Greetings, citizens. We implore you to put an end to this lunacy and save your sons and spouses from certain death. According to CNN, one remark on the Forbes Russia, Fontanka, and Takie Dela websites said, “Putin makes us lie and puts us in risk.”
“We are cut off from the rest of the world; oil and gas are no longer exchanged.” We’ll be living like North Koreans in a few years.” Several websites also depicted the number of Russian deaths, data that the Kremlin has not revealed, most likely in a bid to convert more Russians against the invasion or to provoke those who are already opposed to take action.
On Monday, hackers targeted the websites of key Russian media outlets, including the state-run news agency Tass, to show a message with the current number of Russian army deaths recorded by the Ukrainian military, data that the Russian government has not publicly revealed. International authorities have not independently confirmed the statistics in the hackers’ letter. However, the action is part of a wave of hacktivism in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Internal texts from the pro-Russia ransomware gang Conti were previously exposed.
