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Ukraine Says Its 'IT Army' Has Taken Down Key Russian Sites (bleepingcomputer.com) 60

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
Key Russian websites and state online portals have been taken offline by attacks claimed by the Ukrainian cyber police force, which now openly engages in cyber-warfare. From a report: As the announcement of the law enforcement agency's site details, specialists from the force have teamed with volunteers to attack the web resources of Russia and Belarus. The three countries are currently involved in an ongoing and large-scale armed forces conflict that includes a cyber frontline, which manifested even before the invasion. The Ukrainian cyber police have announced having targeted the websites of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the FSB (Federal Security Service), and the Sberbank, Russia's state-owned bank.
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Ukraine Says Its 'IT Army' Has Taken Down Key Russian Sites More

Ukraine Says Its 'IT Army' Has Taken Down Key Russian Sites

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  • This will be studied intensely.

    • But what does taking down the web site of a Russian intelligence or military org really achieve? Will it prevent the tsar from recruiting new commissars? It might make sense if say, it's a bank or the RT "news" site. For now it seems more a propaganda scoup than anything else.
      • The state bank is down. And it's about preventing communication. Their website is out but their email is too. It's also partially a show of force.

        • I agree with the parent poster, honestly. They took down the bank's website. Meanwhile the Russian army is bombing them to hell and back. The only Russians losing sleep over the hacks must be the IT guys.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dmay34 ( 6770232 )

            The Russians aren't the only ones doing the bombing. It's hard to cut through all the propaganda on both sides, but there is no doubt Russia has lost a lot of soldiers and a lot of equipment.

            • If the Ukrainians didn't bomb back, then Russia would have blitzkrieg'ed their country by now. But unless I've missed a couple of news updates, the bombs are all falling in the Ukraine, not in Russia. So it's still self-defense.

          • I agree with the parent poster, honestly. They took down the bank's website. Meanwhile the Russian army is bombing them to hell and back. The only Russians losing sleep over the hacks must be the IT guys.

            Wouldn't it effectively stop domestic money transfers using that website? I guess you could probably walk in to a bank office but that's really slowing things down and making it impossible for those who can't get physical access. It also wouldn't surprise me if we started seeing bank runs (everyone wants to take out their money all at once) if it hasn't already happened.

          • Banks only operate because of the trust of their customers. Destroy that trust and you will bring down the bank.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Russia's vaunted cyberwarfare capabilities seem to be greatly underperforming expectations. They don't seem to have knocked out anything in Ukraine, interfered with military or government communications, or preventing information from inside even surrounded cities from getting out.

      • Their efforts have been focused on stealth intrusion, and lifting data. Not actual 'attacks' bringing down sites.

        Even the (NGO) ransomware gangs have been focused on data - and monetizing that.

        Then again, there are a lot of Russian 'security experts' ... most of whom have been living the capitalist dream *outside* of Russia!

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hey! ( 33014 )

          Well, this sounds like what economists call "agency costs". The interests of the workers and the organization that employs them aren't the same.

  • CYBER POLICE!? (Score:3)

    by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh@@@gmail...com> on Monday February 28, 2022 @03:55PM (#62312879) Journal

    Holy shit the CYBER POLICE are real!? This changes everything! First of all, Russia Done Goofed and has been backtraced!

    • Holy shit the CYBER POLICE are real!?

      Oh, yeah. They used to be the PHONE COPS, you know.

  • The real question is will there be computer attacks in the Russian power grid, transportation, pipelines and other infrastructure?

    • I've seen reports of train ticket systems brought down, charging stations displaying pro Ukraine / anti Russian messages and someone fiddling with a turbine. But there's no way (that I know of) of verifying any of it as Russian media is under censorship (Russian censorship). I check twitter from time to time just searching for Ukraine (there seem to be some overflow from tik-tok but I'll probably need some kids to help me make sense of that page).

      The IT army of Ukraine is afaik organized from: https://twit [twitter.com]

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        train ticket systems brought down

        When everyone disconnected Russia from SWIFT, it also killed Apple Pay and Google Pay. Commuters in Russia got jammed up at the fare gates because they could no longer use their mobile payment system to pay for their ticket, and crowds were forming at ticket machines to buy tickets with cash. Of course, if ticket machines are down, this will cause the crowds to back up even more.

        In other words, the economic effects are happening.

        I saw an interesting viewpoint on why Russia i

  • Armed forces conflict? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Monday February 28, 2022 @04:06PM (#62312931) Homepage

    The three countries are currently involved in an ongoing and large-scale armed forces conflict

    It's called a "war". I see no reasons to not use the correct terminology.

    • Don't you think that sounds much less threatening than "war"? We don't want people to be scared, after all!

  • It was done by the "Ghiost of Kyiv".

  • I was astonished by the determination, courage and spirit of the Ukrainians. I'm not talking about the cyberattacks alone of course, I'm talking about how they are standing up, mostly by themselves, against Russia's titanic armed forces. And I consider them fighting on behalf of the whole Europe, because Putin has shown that his ambitions know no brake. I really admire them and I hope they prevail.

    • I admire them immensely, but don't hold that much hope in the short term. There's simply no way that Ukraine, even with Western aid flowing in, can hope to ultimately stop the Russian advance. The game now, as tough as it is going to be for people in Ukraine, is to extract as much economic damage against Russia and financial damage against the Oligarchs that someone in Russia tries to get Putin to pull back. But all the signals are there that if Russia does mow over Ukraine and force the government into exi

  • There are a fair number of people in Poland and Germany assisting in the efforts. I have had the honor of communicating with a couple of them. I think it's safe to assume that their activities will be assigned a low priority by local law enforcement.

  • What about Russian infrastructure - power grid, transportation, pipelines, etc?

  • It issues zillion of requests to Russian propaganda sites:

    https://stop-russian-desinform... [near.page]

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