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While many Russian hacking groups claim to be operating as hacktivists out of perceived loyalty to the state, the head of Ukraine’s Department of Cyber Information Security — part of the Security Service of Ukraine — has said most groups are simply puppets of Russian security services.
“More than 90 per cent of all cyber attacks targeting Ukraine are either conducted by special services or by state-sponsored groups,” Illia Vitiuk told CyberScoop, while speaking at this week’s RSA Conference in San Francisco. “I do believe that there is no so-called ‘hacktivism’ in Russia at all.”
Vitiuk believes that the arrests of a number of prominent hackers in the lead-up to the invasion were simply intimidation.
“This was an attempt to intimidate them and others to show that you need to work for us,” Vitiuk said. “And now you need to work against Ukraine.”
This has led to arrested hackers offering to work for the government and even “donating” their profits to support “humanitarian aid” in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Many of these hackers are “young but talented people searching for easy money”, Vitiuk said. Other hackers are motivated by wanting to avoid jail time.
“You attack, and we won’t put you into prison,” according to Vitiuk.
Vitiuk even believes that the Russian GRU is taking advantage of hacking groups’ Telegram channels to announce its own operations. Groups such as Sandworm — a cyber warfare unit within the GRU — even use fake hacking groups to launder stolen data.
However, Ukrainian hacking groups are volunteering to join the fight rather than being coerced, Vitiuk said.
“There were some people that were previously involved and even convicted for hacker activity in Ukraine that came to us and said, ‘Now we are fighting with you against Russia, what should we do?’,” he said.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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