The war in Europe: Pro-Ukrainian hackers shut down dozens of websites in Russia

Cyber ​​attacks are increasing: Both sides are using attack groups that make it difficult to know who is behind which attack, while Ukraine is mobilizing squads to join the fight.

Among other things, the Kremlin site and the government site in Russia were overthrown

Yinon Ben Shoshan

27/02/2022

Sunday, 27 February 2022, 10:43 Updated: 10:49

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Cyber ​​attack against Russia (Photo: ShutterStock)

Russian corporations, companies and government sites were shut down last night (Saturday) in a cyber attack.

The attack comes amid online calls to members of hacker communities linked to Anonymous, an amorphous association of activist hackers, to attack Russia and try to disrupt the country's Internet traffic.

During the night, according to reports from groups on the cyber front against Russia, a number of websites were attacked - including the Kremlin website, the central government website, Yandex, TMK, the Russian oil corporation Tatneft and the Norilsk-Nickel metal mining company.

"The Russians are now the focus of international cyber attacks from various directions, mainly by hackers acting as groups or individuals against Russian elements and sites in order to help Ukraine and protest against the Russian invasion," said Prof. Shlomo Shapira, head of the European Institute in Political Science, Bar-Ilan University.

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Calls to join the struggle:

We are creating an IT army.

We need digital talents.

All operational tasks will be given here: https://t.co/Ie4ESfxoSn.

There will be tasks for everyone.

We continue to fight on the cyber front.

The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists.

- Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 26, 2022

"This is how hackers from the Anonymous group managed to infiltrate the computers of the Russian Ministry of Defense and damage Russian government websites. These cyber attacks have more media effect than causing real damage to Russia's military capability. "In the Russian cyber warfare against Ukraine, and in a situation where the Russians are using new covert cyber capabilities that have been developed for extreme war situations."

The goal of both parties, it seems, is to disrupt the flow of information and disrupt it.

"On the one hand, there is a Russian attempt here to censor what is happening, by clicking on Google, Apple and Meta to censor content," says Oren Biderman, a senior expert in identifying and responding to cyber incidents at Signia.

"On the other hand, there are attacks on Russian government sites, designed to undermine and irritate the Russians, but these attacks are likely to expand."

Websites shut down in cyber attack on Russia (Photo: Walla! Technology, screenshot)

Websites shut down in cyber attack on Russia (Photo: Walla! Technology, screenshot)

Russia is also attacking

"Russia has been using a lot of psychological warfare since the days before the attack while using avatars to promote a positive global dialogue about the attack across Facebook and Twitter in a variety of languages ​​including Hebrew, including Russia's unrecognized and indiscriminate attack against Akuriana, many bodies around the world Russians and I would recommend doing similar actions, "says Tom Malka, a cyber-threat intelligence researcher, in a conversation with Walla!

technology.

According to Mae Brooks-Kempler, a cyber expert and founder of the "Safe Online" community on Facebook, Russia has a host of players in cyberspace, including official intelligence agencies alongside cyber organizations linked to the Kremlin.

"At this stage, warnings are emerging in the international arena against Russia's use of attack tools aimed at harming and destroying computer systems. These days it is very important for every company and especially companies working with Ukrainian companies to make sure the information and protection systems are up to date."

"Beyond conventional warfare, Russians make extensive use of fraud and cyber tactics that include cyber attacks on Ukrainian government ministries, phishing messages aimed at gathering intelligence on Ukrainian citizens and sowing confusion," said Ram Levy, founder and CEO of the Cyber ​​Confidians cyber company. That they have identified attacks by the Belarusian government (UNC1151 group) assisting the Russians and attacking pro-Ukrainian organizations in Belarus.

On the other hand, many organizations including Anonymous began to attack Russian targets.

"The organization published that it managed to bring down the Russian news site RT and managed to leak a database of the Russian Ministry of Defense."

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• Russia

• Ukraine

• Cyber

• war