Friday, September 30, 2022

Has Ukraine's Cyberwar Hit the US?


Part 1
Mykola Balaban, deputy head of Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security
The Centre was established under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine as one of the mechanisms for countering disinformation by joint efforts of the state and civil society. The Centre is focused on communication that is aiming to counter external threats, in particular information attacks of the Russian Federation.

We aim to build sustainable government communication to counter disinformation and grow the resilience of Ukrainian society

Our main principles are continuous cooperation with the civil society, freedom from political pressure, responsibility and openness.

We develop narratives to strengthen Ukraine’s image in the areas that are most targeted by the aggressor

We create messages for coordinated government communication

We unite the efforts of the state and civil society to provide coordinated counteraction to disinformation

We create an online resource that will:
– respond to information threats,
– serve as a united database of the aggressor’s information presence,
– build resilience,
support Ukrainian narratives
Conduct information campaigns

We create a public platform to discuss problems and develop solutions to combat disinformation

We regularly report on Russia’s hybrid aggression

We strengthen cooperation with the countries that have similar information threats to Ukraine

We develop disinformation-countering mechanisms together with our partners

Part 2-

Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov

The Ministry of Digital Transformation, which has led the country’s outreach to Western companies to build a digital blockade

IT Army of Ukraine
The IT Army of Ukraine (Ukrainian: IT-армія України) is a volunteer cyberwarfare organisation created at the end of February 2022 to fight against digital intrusion of Ukrainian information and cyberspace after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.[1][3] The group also conducts offensive cyberwarfare operations, and Chief of Head of State Special Communications Service of Ukraine Victor Zhora said its enlisted hackers would only attack military targets.[4]

Formation
On 26 February 2022, the Minister of Digital Transformation and First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov announced the creation of the IT Army, which is mainly coordinating its efforts via Telegram and Twitter.[5][6]

According to Reuters, the Ukrainian government asked for volunteers from the country's hacker underground to help protect critical infrastructure and conduct cyber spying missions against Russian troops. Yegor Aushev, the co-founder of a Ukrainian cybersecurity firm Hacken,[7] wrote, "Ukrainian cybercommunity! It's time to get involved in the cyber defense of our country," asking hackers and cybersecurity experts to submit an application listing their specialties, such as malware development and professional references.[8]
Aims
The volunteers who joined the group are divided into offensive and defensive cyber units. While the offensive volunteer unit would help Ukraine's military conduct digital espionage operations against invading Russian forces, the defensive unit would be employed to defend infrastructure such as power plants and water systems.[1]

The Ukrainian government used Twitter and Telegram to share a list of Russian and Belarusian targets for the army to attack.[9] Russian ransomware operators responded by offering their assistance to counter the Ukrainian effort.[10]
Activities
Fedorov requested the assistance of cyber specialists and tweeted a Telegram with a list of 31 websites of Russian business and state organizations.[11][12][5]

On 28 February 2022, the IT Army hacked the website of the Moscow Stock Exchange. The IT Army posted that it had taken them only five minutes to render the website inaccessible.[13][14][15]

On the same day, the IT Army hacked the website of Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia. The IT Army had also launched attacks on other Russian and Belarusian sites, including the government websites of Russia and Belarus, the FSB and the Belarusian state news agency BelTA, among others.[12][16]

According to Reuters, the group targets Russian power grids and railways to prevent Russian infrastructure from reaching Ukraine.[2] This included technologies such as GLONASS.[2]

Eight hundred Russian websites, including Roscosmos, were attacked by the IT Army, from June 27 to July 10. They posted congratulatory messages to Ukrainian Constitution Day on those websites. Besides that, distributed denial of service attacks carried out by the IT army has crippled Russian ability to work on some CRM systems for extended periods.[17]

Ministry of Digital Transformation reported about cyberattacks on over 6000 of Russian web resource in the period from February 26 to July 30.[18]

In September 2022 the group had reportedly collaborated with Anonymous to commit cyberattack against Yandex Taxi's systems, causing a traffic jam in Moscow.[19]

The group claimed to have hacked the website of Wagner group and stolen its personal data. On the defaced website, photos of dead soldiers were shown.[20]

Think these guys aren't feeding data to a "cooperative" US Big Tech?  Is Ukraine targeting Big Tech's censoring of US citizens?

32 comments:

  1. Most people have no idea how vulnerable we are to cyber attacks, especially on infrastructure.

    Hell, we are so soft, if they simply degraded our internet to where streaming video would not work, people would be screaming and committing suicide.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No doubt. We're internet junkies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I remember when the internet was cool and nobody knew about it

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...back when you UUEncoded or Binhexed your attachments and Macs and PCs hated each other so AppleTalk had its' own network.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Before Usenet was invaded by AOL users lol

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  6. ......'93

    I was still using my home Mac to "dial in" to the Mac servers at Cal Tech so that I could download work files on to a disk so that I could then use them on my PC at work. Those were the days...

    If I remember right, they named their servers on the AppleTalk network after Norse Gods...

    ReplyDelete
  7. E-mail still didn't handle cross-platform attachments very well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I remember "hacking" Prodigy... the precursor to AOL... by sharing usernames and passwords on a BBS mailing list to where everyone could log into the same account and transfer files through the "draft email folder" connecting QWK packets of multiple BBS's and saving everybody long distance phone bill charges. I think we bankrupted Prodigy lol

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  9. Huh... that giving hint about your age. And explains rigidity of your mind, somewhat.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Age? Please, I used to submit my work with IBM punch cards and then have to run the results through a machine to separate the multiple copies of the resulting printouts.

    ReplyDelete
  11. btw - I think I like Lem... he has a good sense of humour.

    ReplyDelete
  12. \\Blogger Joe Conservative said...
    Age? Please, I used to...


    Sorry. That was comment directed at TC.

    I tryed to concockt and excuse for him to be so narrowminded and basicly a bonehead.
    Age, and possibly humanitarian education. What else can explain/placate it?
    Visivly, you do not need such excuses.


    Blogger Thersites said...
    btw - I think I like Lem... he has a good sense of humour.

    Yep. Kinda like Bierce and Twain.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am not narrow-minded and boneheaded. I just don't waste time with nonsense. You can "what if c-a-t really spelled dog" all you want but that is a discussion you can have with yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  14. \\Anonymous (((TC))) said...
    I am not narrow-minded and boneheaded.

    That is... as always, counter-factual.

    That is YOUR idea about "true meaning of words", not my.

    And that is YOU constantly have problem with finding facts, or some semi-veritable logical constructuions to support your baseless claims.

    That shows that you have little erudition and unflexible mind.
    Don't be too unhappy about it, that is ordinary trait.
    90%, or even 99% of all people live that way.
    That is only freaks like me or FJ seeking for something...
    You are not freak, you are just normal.
    Be proud of it. ;-P



    \\ I just don't waste time with nonsense.

    Yeah. Like any normal people would do.


    \\ You can "what if c-a-t really spelled dog" all you want but that is a discussion you can have with yourself.

    Yeah... what I said. Narrow-minded. And with limited mind capacity.
    Of that long-long thread you remembered only that childish insertions...

    ReplyDelete
  15. I don't pay attention to the wailing screeches of retards.

    Because I'm "narrow-minded."

    Surely there's something erudite and substantive in your cries for attention that I just can't see. I truly feel deprived of the nuances of the insights from an imbecile. Woe is me

    ReplyDelete
  16. Listen, TC. And listen carefully.

    Criptic short "refutations".
    Smug indiscriminate calling people "idiots".
    Stubborness in chanting own catechisms.
    All this.
    I know it all.
    I was that way... in my youth. ;-)

    So, if that is pinnacle of your develpment. (or result of deterioration, whatever)
    There hardly be any way to (mis)communicate. In between us two.
    No matter what level of erudition or professional skills you have in real life. What honorifics or self-esteem you have under your belt.
    And that is not my fault. And not my problem either. ;-P
    That you behave childish, from my POV.

    ReplyDelete
  17. We all enjoy doing a bit of Snark Hunting, Q... even if it's done with a fork, spoon, or Railway Share. In that regard, we are all children of the sky....

    For as Nietzsche once said (Thus Spake Zarathustra), "Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: how the spirit became a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.”

    ReplyDelete
  18. ...for the snark may be a boojum, you see. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Q" - you are begging for respect from me that you are not going to get. Consider the insulting and belligerent tone you have taken with me during and since I demolished your stupid "Universe is Evolution" argument. Consider how you have chased me around and attacked me personally on other topics. I get it, you can't handle loss and rejection, and foolishly consider conversations and discussions to be competitions with a winner and a loser. Intellectual discussions? You don't even have directions to the planet those take place on.

    You're a chump. Fuck off.

    ReplyDelete
  20. \\Anonymous (((TC))) said...
    \\"Q" - you are begging for respect

    WAT??? :-))))


    \\ from me

    In your dreams. No, better, your wet dreams. ;-P


    \\that you are not going to get.

    (homeric laughter))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))



    \\ Consider the insulting and belligerent tone you have taken

    YOU was first. First blood and all that. Don't whimp when your ass was whipped. Be a man. Or at least try to pretend. ;-P


    \\ with me during and since I demolished your stupid "Universe is Evolution" argument.

    YOU demolished ONLY your credibility as sane and sapient opponent.
    Reduced yourself to the level of that fool with cap'n'bells.
    And now you grouching about being treated like one.
    What a loser.

    Keep your dignity and go by a path you choose with your chin up, dammit. :-)))
    So, bells would ring merrily.


    \\Consider how you have chased me around and attacked me personally on other topics.

    Counter-factual. Again. :-)))
    Who chasing who?
    That is YOU are trying to have LAST WORD against me.
    Because, I know your kind too well, as I said higher, YOU think that would symbolise your victory.
    But I deny you that.
    Try for some more. Entertain me (us?) more. Our little jester.


    \\ I get it, you can't handle loss and rejection, and foolishly consider conversations and discussions to be competitions with a winner and a loser. Intellectual discussions? You don't even have directions to the planet those take place on.

    Training your coming-out speach before a mirror? Good idea. :-)))



    \\You're a chump. Fuck off.

    Oh, my little pet-skunk... you are so adorable. :-))))))))))))
    But your under-tail perfums... they just stink.


    PS Put up or, shuddup and gulp.

    PPS See. How my responses perfectly matching your tone and pairing your lame back-bites with an irony and wit.
    Learn from it, for at least. If you still can.

    ReplyDelete
  21. \\For as Nietzsche once said (Thus Spake Zarathustra), "Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: how the spirit became a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child.”

    Yeah... I know that verse.
    Though I was not able to grasp any deep meaning in it.
    Because my mind was spoiled by Lem already, maybe. ;-P


    \\We all enjoy doing a bit of Snark Hunting, Q...

    Yes... with Love and Hope. ;-)


    Well, I gave TC only that that I would like to have in my time.
    Golden Rule secured here.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You're a sad little weasel, Q. I pity you.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Yeah. My little pet-skunk.

    That is YOUR level -- spitting of name-calling through your teeth... while there less and less number of em.

    Habitual loser's underdog barking.

    Ahh... What a pleasant sound.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The only thing I've lost is any reason to respect you. Go take a dirtnap, goatfucker.

    ReplyDelete
  25. :-))))))))

    Respect from a skunk... what a disaster. How I would live without it.


    But see, you still KEEP propving my point while keeping entertaining me.
    You are really nothing but my pet-skunk now.
    Seeing a hoop, doing a jump. ;-P


    Well... you can do nothing more than that.
    Your pretence of being able to "sound intelligent" completely busted.
    You can do only underdog barking. As they teached you in pet-skunk unioversity, isn't it, TC?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Pee Wee Herman and Saul Alinsky did your act better.

    You're literally in ashes and sackcloth mode. Stop disgracing yourself, Q. Give hiding your imbecility a try.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Stubborness. Trait of a fool, not? TC. :-))))

    Elaborate, please. Your point(s?).
    Or... shddup and show that you have wits only for lame underdog back-bites and skunk piss.

    ReplyDelete
  28. By sheer volume, one day you may say something intelligent. Today isn't that day. Keep trying.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yeah, TC. You succed. You definitly are nothing else but dull and obnoxious idiot. You made me bored.

    Here, have your "victory". I will not answer to next your "highly intellectual remark" here. ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  30. What? No dance of victory? :-)))
    No smug comments. No evisceration of a foolish opponent. No grotescue pose taken.

    You even duller than I thought.

    ReplyDelete