Cyber Warfare Intensifies Between Russia, Ukraine; Hacking Activities Increase Globally

New Delhi: The cyber war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified, with Russia using a new destructive malware to permanently destroy data on systems belonging to Ukrainian organisations. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to hacking groups increasing their activities globally.Also Read – Anonymous Hacker Group Declares Cyber War Against Russia, Takes Down Govt Websites

While Russia-backed hackers have already hit several Ukrainian government websites and banks, a leading hacking group, Anonymous, has declared itself aligned with “Western allies”, targeting operations in Russia. “The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government,” the group tweeted. Also Read – It Is Quite Scary; They Have Surrounded Kiev: Ukraine Cricket Federation CEO Kobus Olivier

According to the IBM Security X-Force team, they have obtained a sample of the new and destructive ‘HermeticWiper’ malware being deleted on Ukrainian systems. “HermeticWIper is the second newly-seen destructive malware family observed in the past two months targeting organisations in Ukraine, and reportedly other countries in eastern Europe,” they said in a statement. Also Read – UEFA Strips Russia of Champions League Final, Summit Clash Moved From Saint Petersburg to Paris

“Destructive cyber-attacks will likely continue to be leveraged against civilian targets in support of hybrid operations. In addition, X-Force believes it is likely that cyber-attacks will continue to escalate and expand in parallel with the scope of the ongoing conflict,” the IBM team noted.

Anonymous claims to leak Russian Ministry of Defense database

Meanwhile, Anonymous claimed it has “leaked the database of the Russian Ministry of Defense website”. The hacker group tweeted on Friday that it has access to “all private data of the Russian MOD.” (The tweet was subsequently taken down because it “violated the Twitter Rules”).

Conti in support of Putin’s actions

Conti, a state-sponsored group operating out of Russia, came out in support of Vladimir Putin’s actions. Conti posted a message on its site on the Dark Web, saying that “the Conti Team is officially announcing…