It makes sense for a country under siege to seek out an international brigade of hackers. Objectives are laid out in a series of messages when you are directed to a Telegram channel. Next to the manifestos outlining how to wage information war are targets for hacking and distributed denial of service attacks. Russia's critical infrastructure is in the crosshairs because of the list of targets. Over 270,000 people have subscribed to the channel.
The gangs have declared their intentions. None of the groups have carried out any visible, verifiable attacks despite the messages making headlines. Multiple claims of hacktivists breaching Russian government databases have been quickly dismissed. The misinformation has spread like wildfire. The war is chaotic because of frauds, liars and grifters.
The groups are organized by prominent figures. The anti-regime hacking group called the Belarusian Cyber Partisans claims to be a part of a hybrid cyber-physical effort to sabotage railroads transporting troops. That has been difficult to verify.
The Ukrainian cyber resistance group is made up of officials from the defense ministry. It is not backed by any proof. Only a few countries have the ability to interfere with the power grids.
Ghostwriter, a hacking group linked to Russia and Belarus, has been seen targeting Ukrainian politicians and military personnel, but has so far failed to achieve any meaningful success. According to Jean-Ian Boutin, head of ESET Threat Research, an unknown hacking group used malicious software against Ukrainian government targets just hours before the invasion.
Kaspersky, Russia's biggest cybersecurity firm, declined an interview request to discuss what its experts are seeing inside Russia. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russian media this week that the country is under attack by cyber terrorists from Ukraine.
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