February 15, 2022
Ukraine’s Security Service (SSU) said the nation is the target of a “wave of hybrid warfare” stirring up fear and raising serious doubts about the state’s ability to defend its people.
The SSU said it needed to counter various attempts linked to antagonistic intelligence agencies and bot farms targeting social networks and mass media.
Last week, the Ukrainian government security agency dismantled two bot farms with links to Russian special services and 18,000 social media accounts under its control.
The two botnets were used to disseminate fake news aimed at spreading panic and disrupting operations in the beleaguered nation.
On February 1, the Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team also warned of attacks on Ukrainian authorities by the Gamaredon hacking group, previously linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service.
The SSU also blocked more than 120 cyberattacks on information systems of Ukrainian state institutions in January 2022.
On February 4, Microsoft revealed that Gamaredon is the group responsible for a wave of spear-phishing emails that have been targeting Ukrainian organizations working on the nation’s affairs since October 2021.
For more information, read the original story in BleepingComputer.
