Ukraine dismantles and Seizes 5 Disinformation bot farms
The Ukrainian Security Service (SSU) has announced that since the start of the war with Russia, it has discovered and shut down five bot farms with over 100,000 fake social media accounts spreading fake news.
The goal of these bot farms?
To instil panic among Ukrainian citizens by spreading disinformation about the Russian invasion.
What they secured should be fascinating to many it includes:
· 100 Sets of GSM gateways (GSM gateways allow for the ability to take a SIM card from a cell provider in your area and connect it to a device which can then connect back to the phone system and be used for incoming & outgoing calls.)
· 10,000 SIM cards for various mobile operators to disguise the fraudulent activity.
· Laptops and computers used for controlling and coordinating the bots.
Related to this story the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) announced on Monday it discovered phishing campaign distributing the PseudoSteel malware via phishing emails, containing information about the loses of Ukrainian troops.
Cyber Security Statement on the Critical Situation in Ukraine.
On February 24, people in many cities and towns across Ukraine woke up to the sounds of explosions and artillery fire, as the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of the country. Such actions are unacceptable, political ambitions of any man aren’t worth of blood, tears, and destruction of millions of lives. We give our full support to the Ukrainian people in these hard times. No more war! Слава Україні!
Some background on the Russian Invasion within Cyber Security
Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, igniting a now month-long war.
In light of the attack, the hacker community started rallying to help Ukrainians. With Anonymous being the most prominent one, numerous hacker groups and researchers partake in various campaigns to help Ukraine. The country has also called hackers to join its 'IT Army.'
Cyber activists targeted Russian government websites, Russian state-controlled media outlets TASS, Kommersant, Izvestia, Fontanka, and RBC, pushing them offline. Russian carrier Aeroflot and major lender Sberbank were also experiencing outages and access issues.
Russian nuclear agency Rosatom and the country's space agency Roscosmos were breached by hacktivists protesting the war in Ukraine.
The German branch of the Anonymous collective also claims to have stolen 20 terabytes of data from the German arm of Rosneft, Russia's state energy company.
According to the United Nations, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has created the 'fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.' Over 10 million people were displaced due to the conflict, with over 3.8 million fleeing the country.
(This last portion of the article is sourced directly from Jurgita Lapienytė for the convenience of the reader.)