Russian Hacking in Ukraine Has Been Extensive and Intertwined With Military Operations, Microsoft Says (cnn.com) 18
At least six different Kremlin-linked hacking groups have conducted nearly 240 cyber operations against Ukrainian targets, Microsoft said Wednesday, in data reveal a broader scope of alleged Russian cyberattacks during the war on Ukraine than previously documented. From a report: "Russia's use of cyberattacks appears to be strongly correlated and sometimes directly timed with its kinetic military operations," said Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president.
The Microsoft report is the most comprehensive public record yet of Russian hacking efforts related to the war in Ukraine. It fills in some gaps in public understanding of where Russia's vaunted cyber capabilities have been deployed during the war. Burt cited a cyberattack on a Ukrainian broadcast company on March 1, the same day as a Russian missile strike against a TV tower in Kyiv, and malicious emails sent to Ukrainians falsely claiming the Ukrainian government was "abandoning" them amid the Russian siege of the city of Mariupol. Suspected Russian hackers "are working to compromise organizations in regions across Ukraine," and may have been collecting intelligence on Ukrainian military partnerships many months before the full-scale invasion in February, the Microsoft report says.
The Microsoft report is the most comprehensive public record yet of Russian hacking efforts related to the war in Ukraine. It fills in some gaps in public understanding of where Russia's vaunted cyber capabilities have been deployed during the war. Burt cited a cyberattack on a Ukrainian broadcast company on March 1, the same day as a Russian missile strike against a TV tower in Kyiv, and malicious emails sent to Ukrainians falsely claiming the Ukrainian government was "abandoning" them amid the Russian siege of the city of Mariupol. Suspected Russian hackers "are working to compromise organizations in regions across Ukraine," and may have been collecting intelligence on Ukrainian military partnerships many months before the full-scale invasion in February, the Microsoft report says.
Russia hacking with (Score:3)
Their cloned VAX chips https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/c... [fsu.edu]
Re:Russia hacking with (Score:5, Informative)
Their cloned VAX chips...
Well, from CNN that's probably what you'd get. Microsoft's report says
Tracked malware families levereged for
destructive activity
WhisperGate / WhisperKill
FoxBlade, aka Hermetic Wiper
SonicVote, aka HermeticRansom
CaddyWiper
DesertBlade
Industroyer2
Lasainraw, aka IssacWiper
FiberLake, aka DoubleZero
Which includes data wipers, things that work like randsomware and specific attacks against industrial controllers.
Ukraine status (Score:5, Informative)
In case anyone is wondering, the Ukrinform [ukrinform.net] site is a really good source of ground-level information about the war. It's *completely* one sided (it's the Ukraine state-sponsored war news site), but the information given is largely correct.
The Critical Threats [criticalthreats.org] site reports on the overall conflict, uses analysis from satellite photos and other sources, and is careful to only include verified sources. (Occasionally it will say "...but these reports haven't been verified" for things that are likely true.)
From Ukrinform:
Also, the enemy lost 918 tanks (+34), 2308 armored vehicles (+50), 416 artillery systems (+5), 149 MLR systems (+0), 69 anti-aircraft warfare systems (+0), 184 warplanes (+3), 154 helicopters (+0), 1643 vehicles (+77), eight vessels (+0), 76 fuel tanks (+0), 205 UAVs (+4), 31 units of special equipment (+3), and four mobile SRBM systems (+0).
Initially, there were an estimated 1200 Russian tanks in the invasion.
Also of note, at least 1 fuel depot and 1 ammunition depot in Russia have been disabled, probably by attacks from Ukraine.
Of the 184 warplanes, many of them are the Sukhol SU-XX type fighter planes. Online sources show these to be worth about $50 million each, more or less, depending on type. The Wikipedia page [wikipedia.org] shows a lot of "lost in the Russian invasion of Ukraine" notes. Roughly 5% of all Russian Sukhol forces have been shot down in Ukraine so far.
The economic drain on Russia for this war has to be enormous.
Re: (Score:3)
And it’s putting a hurt on your bank account
Worth it to stop a genocide.
Re: (Score:1)
100 years late is better than never to crush Russia.
Tungusta comet should have hit moscow tho.
Re: (Score:3)
Institute for the study of war is good too [understandingwar.org]
Re: (Score:3)
It's *completely* one sided (...) but the information given is largely correct.
(facepalm)
So? Reliable information is reliable information. A if a one-sided source has proven itself to be reliable then, to some extent, it can be relied upon.
Of course, is a particular piece of news would be disastrous to that side you should have some extra skepticism. But in the current state of the conflict it has proven reliable.
and is careful to only include verified sources.
from what i see they actually cite no sources whatsoever. i guess you trust them to verify without proof.
There's literally a button called "view citations" at the bottom [criticalthreats.org].
of course if anyone is interested in these kinds reports (along with the "isw" ones), they are parroted daily all over the western media anyway, but here at least not mixed with all the dubious headlines with articles ending in "velenzskyy says", "blinken says", "biden says" .... etc.
i consider these 2 sources essentially stylized propaganda. from what i see the info is not even exclusive, it's all also streamed to other media. in war there is no such thing as "good source of ground-level information" for the public. indeed as a citizen your only option is to take it all in form all sides to at least try and read between the lines, but don't delude yourself.
Again, credibility is earned.
The last time "western media" and leaders took a bit of a hit was right at the start where
Re: (Score:3)
"view citations"
i stand corrected.
I think that's a pretty good sign that I'm getting good information
yeah, that or confirmation bias :-)
Re: (Score:3)
I think that's a pretty good sign that I'm getting good information
yeah, that or confirmation bias :-)
Well I explicitly listed pieces of information that HAD surprised me so I think I'm protecting against that fairly well.
And an important factor is that doesn't mean I know everything that's going to happen. For instance, there's rumours that Putin's seriously ill [nationalworld.com]. Though at this point I'm not putting a lot of stock in that because it's so circumstantial (and major media sources are probably avoiding it for a similar reason). If he does turn out to be cancer I'll correctly note that I was aware of the possib
Re: (Score:2)
Reliable? You call numbers like that reliable? If the Russians had lost 918 tanks they would have basically ran out of tanks by now. The close to 200,000 troops they sent into Ukraine probably did not even have that many tanks to begin with. And 184 warplanes? Which 184 warplanes? They lost like half a dozen Sukhoi Flanker fighter jets and maybe double that in terms of Frogfoots. Such BS. And you guys eat this kind of crap. Risible.
The Russians have had severe ground equipment losses, sure, but not near eno
Re: (Score:2)
More useful links? Microsoft Blog (Score:2)
Maybe these links:
will be more useful? Haven't read them yet so comment away as you do.
(apologies for linking to Microsoft sites, but on this special occasion it seems justified /snark)
Wow Russia can do something right? (Score:3)
Wow Russia can do something right?
At least Russia PSYOPs are coordinated.
Hopefully this level of command and control never makes it down to the boots on the ground level.