Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine’s internet infrastructure may be focused on stealing citizen data.
Ukraine has been a regular target of Russian cyberwarfare since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. However, recent attacks appear to be less about disrupting the infrastructure and more focused on gathering information on Ukraine’s population.
This information would offer Russia “extensive details” on the country’s population, military intelligence analysts told the Associated Press. It would also allow Russian forces to target those most likely to resist a Russian invasion.
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These attacks included hacks of notable government agencies, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and more mundane targets, such as a national database of automobile insurance policies. The hack of the insurance database resulted in the theft of up to 80% of insurance policies registered with the Motor Transport Bureau, according to the Ukrainian government.
Auto insurance files are “fantastically useful information if you’re planning an occupation,” said Jack Watling, a military analyst at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute, “knowing exactly which car everyone drives and where they live and all that.”
Russia aggressively accelerated its attempts to gather information about Ukrainian citizens before the invasion, according to Victor Zhora, a senior Ukrainian cyberdefense official, including targeted cyberattacks aimed at civilians, according to Zhora’s agency, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection.
Russian officials could have used the data to target and capture local leaders, such as Ukrainian Mayor Olga Sukhenko, who was found tortured and executed on April 4 alongside her family after being kidnapped by Russian leaders.
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A unit of Russia’s intelligence agency targeted Ukraine’s online infrastructure several times in recent years. The unit, dubbed “Armageddon” by researchers, has attempted to breach government, military, and judiciary agencies before the invasion several times in the last year.
There were 37 Russian destructive cyberattacks within Ukraine between Feb. 23 and April 8, according to Microsoft. These attacks, not all of which have been identified, have led the technology company to believe that Russian hacking attempts have played a far more significant role in the invasion than previously known and was aimed at a “shared target set.”
