Pro-Ukrainian hackers have delivered an unwelcome birthday message for President Vladimir Putin after an ‘unprecedented’ cyberattack hit Russian state broadcaster VGTRK, which was taken offline by the incident.
Some report have claimed Russia’s court systems were also affected, and court documents and decisions have been wiped.
VGTRK confirmed ‘no significant damage’ was suffered in the attack, but the disruption caused appears to be significant, with VGTRK servers down for an extended period of time, and some reports suggesting servers and backups belonging to the media organization have been wiped.
A proxy war
It’s not yet clear who was behind the attack, but pro-Ukrainian hacking group Sudo rm-RF seemingly took credit, tweeting a happy birthday message to President Putin with screenshots of the compromised systems.
"Who is behind a specific attack will be determined by the competent authorities and departments, but we understand that when the collective West says that it is aiming to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, this includes an attack on the media," said Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The campaign represents a significant propaganda victory for Ukraine, which has been on the receiving end of a huge 123% jump in Russian cyberattacks in the first half of 2023, and whose critical infrastructure has sustained a huge influx in cybersecurity incidents since the start of the war.
In conjunction with the ground invasion, Russia has utilized its military intelligence units to carry out a series of critical infrastructure attacks to weaken Ukrainian services and damage morale.
Both sides have carried out successful cyber operations, as the digital arena continues to play an important role in the conflict.
Ukraine’s largest mobile network was taken offline, seemingly by Russian threat actors, in 2023, leaving millions without internet or the ability to make calls. In retaliation, Ukrainian backed hacking group took down Moscow based M9 telecoms.
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