Prepare For Cyber Attack Against Russia, Ukrainian Cyber-Guerrilla Group Aims For Electricity And Railroads

Illustration of a Russian electric substation. (Wikimedia Commons/alexandergroshev)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian cyber-guerrilla warfare groups are planning to launch digital sabotage attacks against critical Russian infrastructure, such as railways and power lines, to strike back at Moscow for its invasion, the hacker team's coordinator told Reuters.

Officials from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense last week approached Ukrainian businessman and local cybersecurity expert Yegor Aushev to help organize a hacking unit to defend against Russia.

On Monday, Aushev said he planned to orchestrate a hacking attack that would disrupt any infrastructure that helps bring Russian troops and weapons into his country.

"Everything that is possible stops the war. The goal is to make it impossible to bring these weapons into our country," he told Reuters as quoted on March 2.

Aushev said his group had vandalized or damaged dozens of Russian government and banking websites, sometimes replacing content with violent images from war.

However, he declined to give a specific example, saying it would make tracking his group easier for Russia.

Russia has called its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" which it says was designed not to occupy territory, but to destroy the military capabilities of its southern neighbor and capture what it considers dangerous nationalists.

Ukraine's defense attache in Washington declined to comment on the Aushev group or its relationship with the Defense Ministry. Aushev said his group had so far grown to more than 1,000 Ukrainian and foreign volunteers.

The group has coordinated with foreign hacktivist organizations that carry out attacks on the railway system.

After the news spread about the formation of the Aushev team, the Belarusian Cyber ​​Partisans, a hacking team focused on Belarus, voluntarily attacked the Belarusian Railway, because they said it was being used to transport Russian soldiers.

Illustration of the train network in Russia. (Wikimedia Commons/Diesellokophren)

Cyber ​​Partisans disabled the rail traffic system and took its ticketing site down, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Cyber ​​Partisans told Reuters the group carried out the attack and confirmed its organization is now working with the Aushev group.

The spokesman said that because his group had disrupted the reservation system, passengers could only travel by purchasing paper tickets in person. He sent Reuters a photo of a paper, handwritten ticket issued on Monday.

"We are completely on the side of Ukraine. They are now fighting for not only their own freedom but also ours. Without an independent Ukraine, Belarus has no chance," he said.

Reuters could not confirm the attack on the Belarusian rail traffic system. The company's reservation website crashed Tuesday afternoon. A railway spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, officials at the Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Russian news outlets on Tuesday that the Russian embassy was under cyberattack by "cyber terrorists from Ukraine."

In addition to striking back at Moscow, Aushev said his team would help the Ukrainian military hunt down covert Russian units attacking cities and towns.

He said his group had found a way to use cell phone tracking technology to identify and locate undercover Russian military units moving through the country, but declined to provide details.

It is known that Russian troops are reportedly using commercial cell phones in Ukraine to communicate, some media reported.

Over the past week, many Russian government websites have been publicly compromised by reported denial-of-service (DDoS)-style attacks, including against President Vladimir Putin's office.