09.06.2022

The 9th of June, Cyber News

Ukraine 

There Are Still No Official Cyber Troops in Ukraine

While Ukrainian cyberspace is defended by volunteers and representatives of various government agencies, there are few specialists among them. Currently, there are no official cyber troops in the Armed Forces of Ukraine that specialize in eliminating threats and attacking enemies. Cybersecurity expert Konstantin Korsun spoke on his Facebook page about the current situation and when it will change. He stressed that the concept of «troops» implies the presence of servicemen who perform specialized tasks with a single command, structure, hierarchy, coordination of actions, clearly defined tools and methods of performing tasks. Military units need adequate funding, logistics, reporting, subordination, material, legal and regulatory support. While such troops are not in the structure of the Armed Forces, they mean units in the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Special Service, Cyberpolice, the National Security and Defense Council, the NBU, the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces and intelligence agencies. According to Konstantin Korsun, the creation of a cyber army in Ukraine is still at a very early stage, although the need for such troops has long been discussed. In August 2021, a presidential decree «On Urgent Measures for Cyber ​​Defense of the State» was issued, but six months later the process did not start. The expert added that russia also does not have cyber troops as such, there is only a mixture of intelligence officers and several hundred hackers recruited by them. Authorities allow criminals to hack Western banks and companies, but instead demand cyberattacks from enemy infrastructure. Such a system works with varying degrees of success due to corruption – budget money is stolen, and the leftovers do not hire the most skilled professionals. Real cyber warriors exist in only a few countries in the world and may be called differently. For example, the most powerful in this area is the US Cyber ​​Command USCYBERCOM, the Canadian Armed Forces is the Cyber ​​Forces. Unofficially, cyber militias operate in the UK and some of Europe’s most developed countries, as well as in China. «I would put Russia with their cyber gangs in the second ten list of the most influential countries in cyberspace. Somewhere after Ukraine,» commented Konstantin Korsun. In March, the State Special Communications Service stated that there were 400,000 people in the Cyber ​​Army of Ukraine who had organized themselves to fight Russia. Although they did not have time to gather full-fledged troops, Ukrainians have a defensive potential in cyberspace [1].

russia  

Hackers  Have Hacked into a russian Radio station: the Ukrainian National Anthem Was Aired

Unknown hackers have hacked the russian radio station «Kommersant FM». Radio listeners could hear the National Anthem of Ukraine live. First, the National Anthem of Ukraine was aired, and later the anti-war song of the leader of the group «Nogu svelo» Max Pokrovsky, who was persecuted in russia for his anti-war position. The composition «Red Viburnum» performed by Andriy Khlyvnyuk was also performed [2].

World 

Chinese Hackers Have Launched a Major Cyber Attack on US Telecommunications Companies

Hackers use the victim’s infrastructure to anchor the system and intercept traffic. According to the NSA, CISA and the FBI, Chinese hacker groups have exploited well-known vulnerabilities for multiple hacks, from unadjusted routers to small offices to large corporate networks. After the compromise, the hackers used the devices as part of their infrastructure as management and control servers, as well as proxy systems that cybercriminals could use to infiltrate other networks. «After accessing the organization’s system, cybercriminals have identified critical users and infrastructure, as well as systems to ensure the security of authentication, authorization and accounting,» the report said. The attackers then stole the credentials to access the SQL databases and used SQL commands to reset the credentials of users and administrators from the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) servers [3].