Ukraine claims cyber attack on Russian Ministry of Defence

The Ukrainian government claims to have successfully breached Russia’s defence ministry and stolen sensitive documents.

The Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence published a press release yesterday (4 March) outlining the outcomes of the attack.

“Cyber specialists of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine implemented another successful special operation against the aggressor state of Russia – as a result of the attack, it was possible to gain access to the servers of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation,” wrote the GUR.

“Now the Ukrainian special service has the information protection and encryption software used by the morph, as well as an array of secret service documents of the Russian Ministry of War.

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“These are orders, reports, orders, reports and other documents that circulated between ＞2,000 structural units of the Russian military service.”

The GUR posted a number of screenshots of official documents, log files and database search results as evidence of the breach.

“The information obtained allows us to establish the complete structure of the system of the Russian Ministry of Defence and its units.”

According to the GUR, stolen data includes:

Data protection and encryption software used by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (Minoborony).
Information that paints a picture of the Minoborony’s structure and links.
Reports, orders, directives, and other sensitive documents from the Russian Defence Ministry that had reached over 2,000 ministry structural units.
Information that assists in the identification of structural unit leaders, deputies, specialists and assistants that had used the “bureaucracy” electronic document management software.
Data and documents belonging to Timur Vadimovich Ivanov, the Russian Deputy Minister of Defence.

The Russian Ministry of Defence is yet to confirm the attack, as it has with previous attacks by the GUR.

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The GUR has launched a number of attacks on Russian entities, including on the Russian agency responsible for aviation safety and recording emergencies, the Rosaviatsia; on the Russian Federal Taxation agency, wiping its databases; and early this year, attacked Russia’s Far Eastern Research Centre of Space Hydrometeorology, destroying two petabytes of data and 280 servers, as well as a digital array valued at US$10 million. It also disabled the research centre’s supercomputers beyond repair.

“One such computing device, together with software, costs US$350,000. In the conditions of strict sanctions against Russia, to get such a software again, it is impossible,” wrote Ukrainian Defence.

Daniel Croft

Born in the heart of Western Sydney, Daniel Croft is a passionate journalist with an understanding for and experience writing in the technology space. Having studied at Macquarie University, he joined Momentum Media in 2022, writing across a number of publications including Australian Aviation, Cyber Security Connect and Defence Connect. Outside of writing, Daniel has a keen interest in music, and spends his time playing in bands around Sydney.

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Ukraine claims cyber attack on Russian Ministry of Defence

Daniel Croft

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