Hackers knock out systems at Moscow-run postal operator in occupied Ukraine

A Russian state-owned postal operator in occupied jap Ukraine mentioned Monday its methods had been disrupted by “exterior interference” after a pro-Ukraine hacktivist group claimed it had wiped 1000’s of the corporate’s units.

Donbas Put up, which operates within the Russian-controlled elements of Donetsk and Luhansk, mentioned the incident affected its company community, net platform and e-mail methods. The corporate had restricted entry to a number of providers to include the breach and was working to revive operations.

The assertion got here after the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance (UCA) mentioned Friday it had carried out the assault, claiming that greater than 1,000 workstations, round 100 digital machines and “a number of dozen terabytes” of information had been destroyed. The group additionally printed screenshots it mentioned had been taken from Donbas Put up’s inside methods.

The disruption coincided with a reported Ukrainian drone strike on vitality infrastructure within the occupied area final week, which authorities claimed left half 1,000,000 folks with out energy. Donbas Put up mentioned it had suspended work at postal branches and its name middle because of the energy outages. It’s unclear whether or not the cyberattack and the drone strike had been coordinated or just occurred on the similar time.

UCA, a community of pro-Ukrainian cyber activists fashioned in 2016, has stepped up operations since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The group has beforehand claimed assaults on Russian monetary corporations, web suppliers and municipal methods, together with incidents affecting microfinance firm CarMoney, telecom operator Nodex and parking operations.

Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine have turn into frequent targets for hacktivist teams and state-backed cyber actors. In 2023, researchers at Russia’s Kaspersky Lab mentioned that they had recognized a brand new malware pressure used for surveillance of presidency businesses and agriculture and transport organizations within the Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea areas, which Moscow seized in 2014. The Cloud Atlas cyber-espionage group has additionally been noticed focusing on high-profile entities within the occupied territories.

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