Western officials are cautioning amateur hackers from joining Ukraine’s “IT Army” — a volunteer unit designed to fight back online — for fear of activists breaking the law or launching spiraling attacks out of hand. He reportedly said that he would strongly discourage any form of criminal activity against Russia.
Hackers who formed Ukraine’s IT army on the Telegram messaging app have strengthened Ukraine’s cyber response to Russian incursions. More than 300,000 people have joined the organization, including members from around the world. But according to Western officials, joining the group and participating in hacking actions against Russia is highly “disappointed”.
Cyber-aggressors in Ukraine have had particular success with denial of service (DDoS) attacks, in which websites are flooded with traffic and become unavailable. Russian government websites including the Kremlin and the Duma, as well as Russia Today, the state-owned news agency, have been targeted in this way. DDoS attacks have also been attributed to a hacking collective, Anonymous.
As reported, experts believe that engaging in Ukrainian cyber attacks from the United States or the United Kingdom may have violated laws in those countries, such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of the US and the UK. In Computer Misuse Act.
For example, one expert told The Guardian that not only could this be illegal, but it also risks playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowing him to brag about cyberattacks from Western countries. Meets. So far, the United States, in particular, has at times blamed Russia as well as China for sponsoring such activities.
It was also reported that the Ukrainian government has done well against cyber attacks since the start of the conflict. While Ukraine has been targeted by DDoS attacks, several “wiper” operations in which computers have been destroyed have so far had limited effect.
Western officials also noted that since the invasion began last month, there has been no increase in hostile Russian cyber activity in the United Kingdom and other Western allies in Ukraine.
However, the most significant cyber incident involving a Western victim was related to the US telecommunications business Viasat. Unknown hackers destroyed thousands of modems attached to Viasat Inc.’s Ka-Sat satellite, which provides internet to some customers in Europe, including Ukraine.
Ukraine IT Army
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov announced the formation of a volunteer cyber army in February.
He said in a Telegram post: “We have a lot of talented Ukrainians in the digital sphere: developers, cyber experts, designers, copywriters, marketers … we continue to fight on the cyber front.”
Fedorov said that the missions of the IT army are being allocated to volunteers through a telegram channel.
However, since then the scope of the IT Army channel has expanded. It asked volunteers on February 27 to target websites registered in Belarus, one of Russia’s important allies, and customers are also encouraged to report YouTube channels.
The impact of the IT Army has so far been difficult to assess. Thousands of people have joined the Telegram channel, but no one knows who they are or how they are involved in the response. The channel has provided screenshots of the allegedly removed Russian websites, although it is unclear how successful these efforts were.
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