Hackers associated with the Russian government and the cyber attacks on the american Democratic Party allegedly watched units of the… Ukrainian artillery in the period 2014 – 2016.
The “invasion” happened via malware (malicious software) on Android devices, according to a report the company κυβεÏνοασφαλείας CrowdStrike.
This malware was able to intercept conversations and some location data from infected devices – information that probably were used for strikes against units of artillery, in support of φιλοÏώσων separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.
These findings are the latest in a long series of data that support the ever-increasing impression on the intelligence services of the West and the researchers κυβεÏνοασφαλείας that Vladimir Putin relies more and more on hackers to influence and affects of geopolitical opponents.
Circles of Washington, they think the particular group, which is known as a Fancy Bear or APT 28, acts on behalf of the GRU – Russian military intelligence.
The malicious software that was used for the monitoring of the Ukrainian units of artillery was a variation of the kind that was used against the american Democratic Party, according to CrowdStrike.
This fact, combined with the high levels of losses suffered by the units of the Ukrainian artillery, which were also targeted by hackers, makes it highly likely that the Fancy Bear to be responsible for the “planting” of the malware.
The software that he was using an otherwise “legitimate” application for Android was developed by a Ukrainian officer artillery for faster processing sighting data.
The use, according to the company, marks the expansion of Russian cyberwarfare capabilities in the front line of battles, and you “could have been a result of the early knowledge concerning the motion of the Ukrainian artillery, thus giving the Russian forces information useful at the level of strategic planning”.
Year of… hackers 2016
As the “year of the hackers” can be categorized in 2016, as well as the cyber attacks have multiplied, while at the same time were found and the focus of major developments.
The sharp increase of incidents due to more sophisticated attacks, the DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) are becoming more and more numerous, but the lack of appropriate protective measures by the users.
These attacks, where huge amounts of data distributed online systems, so that these can no longer respond to legitimate requests – they have evolved to a large extent in the current year, as the hackers “realized” that they can exploit vulnerable devices, which are part of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT – Internet of Things).
Also, this year the number of attacks with ransomware from hackers to private individuals has risen sharply (of 6,000%!), if you take into account the relevant research of the IBM Security.
With the term “ransomware” shall mean the software which “locks” the user’s computer.
The hackers require then from the individual to deposit some money at a (usually) a bank account, in order to have again access to the files.
The survey finds that 40% of e-mail spam containing software type of ransomware.
The even more impressive conclusion of the research is that 70% of the victims ultimately pay the hackers.
In fact, 50% paid a little over $ 10,000, while 20% of over 40,000!!
Also, 40% of citizens answer that would pay over $ 100 for “get files back”, if she’s the victim of hacking.
Objectives of the hackers is now and the banks.
It is recalled that last February, malicious software used for stealing 81 million. $ . by the Central Bank of Bangladesh!
The above malware has, at times, “attack”, and in SWIFT, the system through which transfer money to the banking institutions.
It is reported that the total amount they attempted to “pull” the hackers, it was 951 million. $ .
Source
Russian hackers were monitoring units of the Ukrainian artillery in the period 2014 – 2016
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