Pro-Russian hacktivist operations dismissed

Most pro-Russian hacktivist attacks against Ukraine have been noted by Ukraine Department of Cyber Information Security Chief Illia Vitiuk to be state-backed operations, reports CyberScoop. "More than 90% of all cyberattacks targeting Ukraine are either conducted by special services or by state-sponsored groups. I do believe that there is no so-called 'hacktivism' in Russia at all," said Vitiuk at the RSA 2023 Conference. Ukraine had several of its industries impacted by continuous attacks conducted by Russian state-sponsored threat groups, including Gamaredon and Sandworm, which have been using fake hacktivist groups to facilitate the laundering of stolen files to emphasize the success of hacktivism against Ukraine, according to Vitiuk. Such false hacktivism has been noted by Vitiuk to be in contrast with Ukraine's. "There were some people that were previously involved and even convicted for hacker activity in Ukraine that came to us and said, 'Now we are fighting with you against Russia, what should we do?'" he added.