Ukrainian military intelligence agents operated a mass cyberattack on Russian Internet providers on August 24 that disrupted the online platforms of dozens of industrial facilities in Russia, according to a source with the Kyiv Independent, who was authorized to speak on the matter.
During the recent cyber attack, there were at least 33 servers and 283 computers in offices at industrial facilities that were affected, 21 websites that have been taken offline and 15 cloud-based storages that have been destroyed. An online source has reported that the Ukrainian hackers have also left pro-Ukrainian messages on the affected platforms.
Users in Russia have complained that they have had issues with Rostelecom, one of the world's largest digital service providers, and they have described poor Internet connections at MTC and Beeline, as well as Yandex, an international technology company and its services.
A Russian source told the newspaper that platforms hit by cyberattacks in the past support and finance Russia's war against Ukraine.
According to the Telegram messaging app published by Solntsepyok, a group of activist hackers and "hacktivists" who exercised control at Kyivstar, launched the cyberattack and published screenshots that appear to support their claim that they had accessed the network.
In the past few months, Russia has denied being responsible for such cyberattacks on several occasions.
According to a statement released by Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP), this incident is being investigated along with the domestic intelligence agency SBU, which is responsible for spreading intelligence across the country.
It is also believed that many industrial facilities, which support the Russian military-industrial complex, were attacked, as well as dozens of services belonging to the facilities.
Hackers from Ukraine have been targeting the network infrastructure of factories and companies that produce equipment for Russian law enforcement agencies, aircraft, and helicopter components, as well as other hardware and software used in producing those products, such as servers and processors.
Several Russian Internet providers, including Mail.ru, one of the most used and most popular Russian portals, have been attacked, putting their cloud and file storage services at risk.
This attack affected at least two dozen websites owned by companies whose products include lighting equipment and diesel power plants as well as hosting providers and ballistic protection products.
In 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine on a full scale began, and since then, Ukrainian hackers have regularly attacked Russian online platforms.
There was a large-scale cyberattack that took place in late June, which caused at least 250,000 consumers to lose access to the internet in Crimea and other Russian-controlled territories, according to a military intelligence source quoted in the Kyiv Independent.
In the June attack, the impacted infrastructure was shared by consumer networks and operators of the occupied territories that used the impacted infrastructure. According to the HUR report, Russian providers called it "the most powerful DDoS attack they had ever experienced to date".
In July of this year, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency conducted a cyberattack against the Russian banking system, striking several top banks in the process. The attack was caused by the freezing of the Russian banks, so users of the Russian banks were not able to withdraw cash, and when they tried to use an ATM, they were blocked immediately from using their debit or credit cards.
