UK exposes Russian cyber campaign targeting support for Ukraine

The UK has uncovered what it says is a “malicious cyber marketing campaign” concentrating on a number of organisations, together with these concerned in delivering international help to Ukraine

After a joint investigation with allies together with the US, Germany and France, the UK’s Nationwide Cyber Safety Centre (NCSC) stated a Russian navy unit had been concentrating on each private and non-private organisations since 2022.

These embrace organisations concerned in supplying defence, IT companies and logistics help.

The safety our bodies of 10 Nato nations and Australia stated Russian spies had used a mix of hacking strategies to realize entry to networks.

A number of the targets had been internet-connected cameras at Ukrainian borders which monitored help shipments going into the nation.

The report additionally says a tough estimate of 10,000 cameras had been accessed close to “navy installations, and rail stations, to trace the motion of supplies into Ukraine.

It provides the “actors additionally used reputable municipal companies, comparable to visitors cams.”

The Russian navy unit blamed for the espionage known as GRU Unit 26165 however goes by a variety of casual names, together with Fancy Bear.

The infamous hacking group is understood to have previously leaked World Anti-Doping Company information, and performed a key function in the 2016 cyber-attack on the US’s Democratic Nationwide Committee, in accordance with safety consultants.

“This malicious marketing campaign by Russia’s navy intelligence service presents a severe threat to focused organisations, together with these concerned within the supply of help to Ukraine,” Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, stated in a press release.

“We strongly encourage organisations to familiarise themselves with the risk and mitigation recommendation included within the advisory to assist defend their networks,” he added.

The joint cyber-security advisory stated Fancy Bear had focused organisations linked to crucial infrastructure together with ports, airports, air visitors administration and the defence business.

These had been in 12 mainland European nations and the US.

The hackers used a mix of strategies to realize entry, the report stated, together with guessing passwords.

One other technique used known as spearphishing, the place pretend emails are focused at particular individuals who have entry to programs.

They’re offered with a pretend web page the place they enter their login particulars, or inspired to click on a hyperlink which then installs malicious software program.

“The themes of spearphishing emails had been various and ranged from skilled subjects to grownup themes,” the report stated.

A vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook was additionally exploited to gather credentials “by way of specifically crafted Outlook calendar appointment invites”.

These sorts of strategies have been “a staple tactic of this group for over a decade,” Rafe Pilling, director of risk intelligence at Sophos Counter Menace Unit, stated.

Digicam entry “would help within the understanding of what items had been being transported, when, in what volumes and help kinetic [weapons] concentrating on,” he added.