Stock Groups

Ukrainian cyber resistance group targets Russian power grid, railways -Breaking

[ad_1]

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO – Power transmission lines can be seen outside Monchegorsk, Murmansk Region Russia. October 31, 2019 REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing. James Pearson

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – The Ukrainian Cyber Guerrilla Warfare Group plans to launch digital sabotage attempts against the critical Russian infrastructure. This is to strike back against Moscow after its invasion. A hacker team coordinator said to Reuters.

According to Reuters, officials from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry approached Yegor Aushev (a local cybersecurity expert) to organize a group of hackers against Russia.

Aushev claimed Monday that he was planning to launch hacking attacks against any infrastructure used to bring Russian weapons and troops to the country.

“Everything that might prevent war”, he said to Reuters. The goal is to stop these weapons from reaching our country.

Aushev claimed that his group had already taken down or compromised dozens of Russian banking and government websites. Sometimes, Aushev replaced the content with images from war. He refused to name specific examples because it would help the Russians track his group better.

Russia refers to its actions in Ukraine as a “special operations” and says it isn’t meant to occupy any territory. Its purpose is to disarm its southern neighbour’s military capability, capture dangerous nationalists, and destroy their military capabilities.

Washington’s Ukrainian defense attache declined to speak out about Aushev’s group and its relation with the Defense Ministry. Aushev claimed that the group has grown to over 1,000 foreign and Ukrainian volunteers.

It has already teamed up with a hacktivist group from abroad that attempted to attack a railway line.

Following word of Aushev’s group formation, the Belarusian Cyber Partisans (a Belarusian focused hacking team) offered their services to strike Belarusian Railways. They claimed that the railway was used to transport Russian troops.

Bloomberg News reported that the Cyber Partisans had taken down rail traffic and shut down ticketing websites.

Cyber Partisans spokesperson told Reuters Monday that the Cyber Partisans had carried out these attacks. She also confirmed that her group was working with Aushev.

A spokeswoman stated that her group had shut down the reservation system and passengers were restricted to purchasing paper tickets at their destination. She provided Reuters with a photograph of a Monday-issued paper ticket.

She said, “We completely support Ukrainians.” “They now fight for our freedom and not just theirs.” Without an independent Ukraine, Belarus doesn’t stand a chance.”

Reuters couldn’t confirm the attacks against Belarus’s railway traffic system. On Tuesday afternoon, the company’s reservation site was unavailable. Un spokesperson for the railway did not reply to my request.

Washington’s Russian Embassy officials did not respond immediately to our request for comment.

Maria Zakharova (Russian foreign ministry spokesperson) stated to a Russian news agency on Tuesday, that Russian embassies are under cyberattack from “cyber terrorists” from Ukraine.

Aushev claimed that his team would assist Ukraine’s military to hunt down Russian sub-units invading towns and cities.

However, he said that his group discovered a way using cell phone tracking technology to locate and identify undercover Russian military units traveling through the country. He declined to share details.

Multiple media outlets claimed that Russian soldiers are using Ukrainian cell phones to communicate in Russia.

Over the past week, a number of Russian government websites have been publically interrupted by DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks. This includes one targeting President Vladimir Putin’s office.

This story was rewritten to include a dropped word in the third paragraph.

[ad_2]