The mask from the film “V for Vendetta” is a trademark of the hacker collective.
(Photo: imago stock&people)
New York, Dusseldorf In the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the country has also asked hackers for help. Because the war is not only waged with rockets, but also with cyber attacks. After attacks on Ukrainian companies and authorities, important Russian websites were also paralyzed at the weekend – the hacker collective Anonymous could be behind this.
“When Putin warned a few days ago that one should leave him alone or face unprecedented consequences – that could have been a warning of both nuclear and cyber attacks,” former US National Security Advisor John Bolton told Handelsblatt.
One thing is certain: the world is witnessing a hybrid war. While rocket attacks destroy houses and claim lives, effective invisible weapons are also used. They are called DDoS and HermeticWiper. What damage they cause is often initially unclear.
Even before the physical fighting began, attackers paralyzed the IT systems of Ukrainian organizations. At first everything looked like known extortion attacks: the attackers demanded ransom in digital letters.
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However, security researchers now believe that a new cyber attack method is behind it: HermeticWiper. In reality, the attackers did not want money. While those affected were thinking about paying the ransom, IT systems and devices are said to have been destroyed in the background. The technical quality of the attack leads experts to suspect that the Russian state itself is behind it.
Hackers declare war on Putin’s government
In addition, a wave of DDoS attacks on government websites was recently recorded in the country. Websites receive so many requests at the same time that they collapse under the load. The departments of defense, interior and foreign affairs were among those affected, Bloomberg reported.
According to information from the Reuters news agency, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has asked hackers in its own country for support. According to cybersecurity entrepreneur Yegor Aushev, who spread the call, volunteers will be divided into offensive and defensive teams.
But the reaction from the network seems to go far beyond that. The international hacker collective Anonymous has also declared war on the government of Russian President Putin with a message on the Twitter platform.
>>Read also: Putin’s war: That’s what the President is aiming for by attacking the free world
Shortly thereafter, pages from central authorities in Russia were also paralysed. On Friday, the hacker collective wrote on Twitter, among other things, that they had brought the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense to a standstill.
At the same time, the group tweeted a link under which the ministry’s database was said to be available for download for every Internet user. The link was deleted a short time later.
On the internet, the conflict becomes an information war
Internet users uploaded photos that are supposed to show the data – but the Russian side has not confirmed whether this is really sensitive data from the Ministry of Defense.
The hacker collective also claimed disruptions to the websites of the energy company Gazprom, various banks and a telecommunications company.
IT security experts in the US and Europe have been warning for weeks that cyber attacks related to the Ukraine conflict could quickly spread to other countries. Above all, companies from the energy, finance and telecommunications sectors are in focus due to the sanctions imposed by international governments.
“The US and NATO have been concerned about cyberattacks for years, but there is still no good framework for how to deal with them,” says John Bolton.
In addition to cyber attacks, hybrid wars also include online disinformation campaigns. False information has been circulating on social media for days, which observers believe is being deliberately spread primarily by Russia. Among other things, it is about the number of soldiers killed and the penetrating power of the Russian attacks. According to experts, they are intended to discourage the Ukrainian troops and population.
At this level, too, hackers are apparently trying to fight back, for example with attacks on the Russian state television rt.com. The station’s website was temporarily unavailable over the weekend. In addition, unverified video recordings of television screens showing pictures from Ukraine and playing Ukrainian music instead of the usual program were circulating online.
However, the @youranonnews account wrote: “Anonymous conducts ongoing operations to keep Russian government websites offline and leaking information to the Russian people so they are free from Putin’s state censorship machine.”
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has now stepped in to ensure the stability of the Internet in Ukraine. On Saturday, the internet entrepreneur announced that its Starlink satellite internet service is now operational in the country. Musk was responding to a request from Ukraine’s digital minister, Mikhail Fedorov.
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