Hacking, Security & Privacy News - Page 7

Hackers have taken aim at Russia once again, but this time they have targeted many of the nation's online platforms with a clear message.

On Monday, May 9, hackers infiltrated many Russian smart TVs by changing the channel names and descriptions to show a stark message. Notably, smart TVs weren't the only online platforms that were targeted, as reports indicate that Russian platforms such as Rutube, Russia's clone of YouTube, and even large internet companies such as Yandex. Rutube described the hack in its Telegram channel as a "powerful cyberattack" that caused the platform to not be accessible.

The message that was displayed on Russian smart TVs was, "The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on your hands." These cyber attacks are hardly surprising as Russia has undergone many hacking attacks since it began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Notably, the Anonymous hacking collective has already performed many successful cyber attacks against Russia, claiming it has previously infiltrated the Russian space agency, Russia's Central Bank, and more.

The Department of Justice has announced its charged three individuals for acting as an illegal agents of the Russian government within the United States.

Russian business man Aleksandr Mikhaylovich and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The news was announced via a press release found on the Department of Justice website and states that a Russian legislator Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Babakov and two staff members, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, have been charged for running a multi-year propaganda network designed to "influence and gain access to U.S. elected officials" and "advance Russia's malevolent political designs against Ukraine and other countries, including the United States", said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

A hacking group affiliated with the Anonymous hacking collective claimed that it had infiltrated Russia's space agency systems and seized control.

The hacking group called Network Battalion 65 (NB65) took to its Twitter account to post screenshots of server information that they then claimed was displaying the group had infiltrated the Russian space agency "Roscosmos" control system. The head of Roscosmos refuted the claims by NB65, Dmitry Rogozin, who called NB65 "scammers and petty swindlers", and said that "All our space activity control centers are operating normally."

Now reports are surfacing that state a file containing the source of the hack has been analyzed, revealing that the hacking group used 66% of the same code as Conti, a Russian crime hacking group that used ransomware to steal millions from Western companies. As NB65 used the majority of Conti's ransomware to hack Roscosmos systems, it seems that NB65 has changed Russia's own ransomware code and used it to attack the Kremlin.

Anonymous announced the beginning of its cyberwar with Russia when Putin's forces started invading Ukraine, and now the collective has another update for the public.

Taking to its official Anonymous Twitter account, the hacking collective vowed that it would not stop its cyberwar with the Kremlin until Russia stops its aggression altogether. The recent update follows many previous updates of Anonymous revealing it had leaked the personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers (April 3), and that it hacked the central bank of Russia and stole 35,000 files (March 24).

Notably, Anonymous has also claimed that it had hacked Russian streaming services Wink and Ivi and live TV channels such as Russia 24, Channel One, and Moscow 24 to broadcast war footage from Ukraine to show Russian citizens the horrors of Putin's invasion. Furthermore, the hacking collective said that it had infiltrated a censorship agency, government, corporate, and news websites.

Anonymous has continued its hacking crusade against Russian institutions in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine.

On February 25th, the Anonymous collective posted to its Twitter account that it "is officially in a cyber war against the Russian government." Since then, it has claimed to have hacked the Central Bank of Russia, and now claims to have gained access to CCTV within the Kremlin itself.

Posted on April 6th, the surveillance footage has yet to be independently verified, but allegedly shows Russian officials working inside the Kremlin. Hackers operating on behalf of Anonymous, using the Twitter handle @Thblckrbbtworld was quoted saying "we won't stop until we reveal all of your secrets. You won't be able to stop us. Now we're inside the castle, Kremlin."

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that Kaspersky anti-virus software is a "national security threat".

The announcement from the US regulator comes only weeks after Germany's Federal Office for Information Security advised all citizens to avoid downloading and installing Kaspersky as the regulator found doubt in the "reliability of the manufacturer." Relatively the same statements have echoed from the FCC, that have now added Kaspersky to its list of "communications equipment and services that pose an unacceptable risk to national security".

When Germany advised against Kaspersky, the anti-virus company responded by denying any ties to the Russian government or any other government and that the decision made by Germany's cybersecurity agency was politically charged and wasn't based on a technical analysis of Kaspersky's products. Kaspersky is a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus firm that has its corporate headquarters in Moscow and operates a holdings company in the United Kingdom.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation, or the Central Bank of Russia has reportedly been hacked by the international hacking collective Anonymous.

The Anonymous TV Twitter account took announced on March 24 that the Anonymous collective has "hacked the Central Bank of Russia" and has taken control of 35,000 files that contain "secret agreements". The Twitter post states that Anonymous will be releasing the large quantity of files in 48 hours, but didn't mention what the contents of the documents.

Anonymous announced at the end of February that it would be launching operations against the Russian Federation and that it will be targeting the Russian government. At the beginning of March a hacker group affiliated with Anonymous called "NB65" successfully hacked the Control Center of the Russian Space Agency "Roscosmos" and took control over the Kremlin's own spy satellites. Roscosmos denied claims of its control center being hacked.

Since Putin began his invasion into Ukraine, the Kremlin have been hit with sanctions, essentially removing Russia from the world economy.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has condemned the sanctions imposed on his country, declaring them "akin to a declaration of war" while also indicating that he wants his revenge for the impact the sanctions have caused. According to Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado, who is a lawyer, veteran, and serves on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, Putin may turn to one of the only strengths he has left, cyber-warfare.

Crow spoke to Newsweek, where he explained one of the biggest tools that Putin has at his disposal is cyber-warfare and that to seek out his revenge against the sanctions imposed on Russia, he may initiate cyber-attacks on the United States and its allied countries. Crow believes these attacks could be carried out in the "weeks and months ahead" and that "we can expect Putin to come at our financial system and some of our critical infrastructure."

The announcement by Ukraine authorities was made via Telegram where the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) announced it had detained a "hacker".

According to the Telegram announcement the hacker provided "the occupiers with mobile communications in Ukraine" by sending SMS messages to Ukrainian officials and civil servant officers offering them surrender terms. Additionally, the SSU alleges that this hacker also relayed military commands and instructions to Russian invaders.

The Ukrainian security agency said that in a 24 hour period the hacker made up to 1,000 calls and that some of these calls were with top Russian leadership. Ukrainian officials have captured the hacker and released blurred images of the individuals face while also not revealing any name or identifying information. The equipment used by the hacker has been seized by Ukrainian authorities and will be used as evidence, with the SSU stating that he would be "held accountable for all the severity of the law."

A group of hundreds of thousands of hackers has been formed together to launch digital attacks against Russia.

A report from The Guardian reveals a group on the Telegram chat app titled "IT Army of Ukraine", which features around 300,000 members. Each of the group members are assigned tasks to digitally fight Vladimir Putin, with some attacks being successful as the group has caused interruptions for Russian web services, websites for Russia's lower house of parliament, sites for state-owned media service providers, a selection of banks and a large energy company called Gazprom.

Alp Toker, the director of NetBlocks, an internet connectivity watchdog, said that the group of hackers has been successful in taking down state-owned media websites. Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, has made a public call for "digital talents" by posting onto his personal Twitter a link to the Telegram ground and stating "we are creating an IT army", and "there will be tasks for everyone".