The number of Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine has increased significantly, but their criticality has decreased.
russia has increased the number of cyberattacks on Ukraine, but they have stopped hitting critical targets. This indicates both a strengthening of Ukrainian defense and a decrease in the ambitions of Russian hackers, Bloomberg reports.
The publication notes that the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine included some of the largest cyber operations in history, targeting satellites and power plants to shock and fear the population.
"Now, according to Ukrainian officials, some of Moscow's most prominent hackers are focusing on steps such as blocking the website of a local news agency - a more modest approach that refutes Vladimir Putin's claim that everything is going according to plan," the newspaper writes.
The SBU, with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the EU, recently released a report that found the number of Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine increased to 762 from January to June, more than double the number last year. "But the number of incidents they called 'critical' during that period dropped 81% to 27, reflecting improved defenses as well as Russia's more restrained ambitions," Bloomberg writes.
Russia is now attacking media and telecommunications, local law enforcement and government agencies that collect evidence of war crimes, and collecting data on captured Russians who may face trial for war crimes.
According to the report, the state-linked hackers mostly avoided targets that could be used to support military operations. Instead, the GRU military intelligence-linked Sandworm group, which has carried out some of Russia's most aggressive cyberattacks around the world, hit Ukraine's state news agency in January in an attempt to take down its website.
Despite the changes, Ukrainian cybersecurity experts warn that attacks on critical infrastructure will continue. DTEK, a private energy company, has reported repeated attacks on its IT infrastructure, both from hackers and missile strikes. Russian hackers also tried to collect information about Zaporizhzhia NPP.
As reported by the IR group, the International Criminal Court in The Hague suffered a large-scale cyberattack.
