‘Wagner’ Hackers Say They Shut Down Russian Satellite Internet Provider
Hackers who claim to be affiliated with Russia’s Wagner group say they’ve breached a Russian satellite internet provider and forced it offline.
The mysterious group posted their claims in a Telegram channel as the Russian satellite communications provider Dozor-Teleport became unreachable on Thursday morning.
“Confirmed: Metrics show a disruption to satellite internet provider Dozor-Teleport which supplies Russia’s FSB (Federal Security Service), Gazprom, Rosatom and military installations,” internet traffic monitor NetBlocks reported. Others, including Kentik and Internet Outage Alerts, also confirmed Dozor-Teleport remains offline.
In a Telegram message, the hacking group claims “part of the satellite terminals” failed at Dozor-Teleport, and information was wiped from the Russian company’s servers. As proof, the group posted apparent internal documents from Dozor-Teleport, suggesting they successfully compromised the company’s network.
The group says it also defaced four Russian websites with a message titled: “Who are the Wagners? Everyone saw them on June 24th.”
“The whole world watched our actions, listened to our every word. We showed how easily we can reach Moscow in a day without meeting any resistance,” the message adds.
The disruption occurs days after security researchers spotted a piece of ransomware that was also promoting the Wagner group. When it infects, the ransomware will drop a note written in the Russian language that encourages users to sign up with the paramilitary organization.
But it remains unclear if the ransomware or the breach of Dozor-Teleport are connected to the real Wagner group. So far, the official Telegram channel for the Russian military organization has yet to comment on any of the cyberattacks.
This past weekend, Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin briefly rebelled against the Russian military by marching his troops toward Moscow while accusing the country’s defense ministry of incompetence. However, the rebellion was short-lived; Prigozhin called off his troops a day later and has since agreed to live in exile in Belarus.
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