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#Post#: 3114--------------------------------------------------
Knarf's News ( The Dark Web's war for the Ukraine...lookout Anon
ymous )
By: Blade of Grass Date: March 17, 2022, 11:59 pm
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Tensions continue to escalate around the globe as the world
watches Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion. Several events
have unfolded since the initial invasion on February 24th, and
Binary Defense analysts have observed dark web forums and media
outlets reacting to the situation. Leading up to the invasion,
Ukrainian government networks suffered DDoS attacks that would
be attributed to Russia. The day of the invasion, Ukrainian
government sites went offline.
During the initial invasion, Russian Criminal forums were very
quiet. Typically, when there is a major global event taking
place, forum members weigh in and offer opinions on the subject.
There was no discussion of the invasion and little activity on
these forums. This could have been due to outages in the region
caused by the invasion. Raid Forums, an English-speaking hacker
forum, condemned the invasion almost immediately. A moderator
of the forum said they would ban any user that is connecting
from Russia and stated the forum does not support the Kremlin.
On February 25th, news stories about the war began showing up on
the dark web forums. The notorious hacking group, Anonymous,
announced they were launching a cyber war against Russia. Then a
news story broke that President Biden was evaluating options on
how to launch a large-scale cyberattack on Russia to disrupt
critical infrastructure. This story caused widespread discussion
across multiple Russian dark web forums.
Immediately, Russian telegram channels began posting the story
as well as other updates surrounding the conflict. Users stated
that the threat from Anonymous was an empty one and labeled them
amateurs as they tried to discredit the group.
Russian telegram channels began launching misinformation
campaigns. A new user on Raid Forums stated that the Western
news outlets are posting propaganda videos to make Russia look
evil. Later in the evening it was reported that Raid Forums had
been seized and one of the administrators warned users to change
their passwords.
Conti Ransomware Group Makes Pro-Russia Statements
Conti Ransomware was the first group to show support for Russia.
Initially they posted the following statement:
“The Conti Team is officially announcing a full support of
Russian government. If anybody will decide to organize a
cyberattack or any war activities against Russia, we are going
to use all possible resources to strike back at the critical
infrastructure of an enemy.”
After the announcement, social media outlets and forums began to
question if the group was working for the Russian government.
The group responded by changing their warning:
“As a response to Western warmongering and American threats
to use cyber warfare against the citizens of the Russian
Federation, The Conti Team is officially announcing that we will
use our full capacity to deliver retaliatory measures in case
the Western warmongers attempt to target critical infrastructure
in Russa, or any Russian-speaking region of the world. We do not
ally with any government, and we condemn the ongoing war.
However, since the West is known to wage its wars primarily by
targeting civilian, we will use our resources to strike back if
the well-being and safety of peaceful citizens will be at stake
due to American cyber aggression.”
As a result of this announcement from Conti, a Ukrainian citizen
who had access to private files and chat messages from the Conti
group leaked the files and chats via AnonFiles and linked to the
files on Twitter. Subsequent reporting by cybersecurity
reporters alleged that the person who leaked the files is a
Ukrainian security researcher, not a threat actor. The fact that
many threat groups comprise both Russian and Ukrainian members
will likely lead to divisions and possibly additional leaks of
threat intelligence information.
Anonymous Strikes Back
At the same time of this announcement, Anonymous claimed to have
taken down several Russian sites and to have leaked a database
to the Russian Ministry of Defense website. Users on Russian
criminal forums claimed that the data was not from a recent
breach and further discredited Anonymous. Following the Conti
announcement, other groups posted their support for Russia. Most
notably, the LockBit ransomware group posted a warning on Sunday
threatening retaliation to anyone that launches a cyberattack at
Russia.
Ransomware groups supporting Russian attack efforts
It is no surprise that ransomware groups are choosing to support
Russia. Recently, Russian authorities began to crack down on
cybercriminals residing in Russia. It was believed that these
arrests that had previously gone unreported, were an act of good
faith to improve Russia’s reputation globally prior to the
invasion. Cybercriminals are likely hoping thattheir ability to
operate with impunity will be restored due to the invasion in
Ukraine. Although Conti has denied working directly with the
Russian government and condemned their actions, it is certainly
feasible that they are lying. Russian President Vladimir Putin
could very well enlist the help of a hacker gang to carry out a
cyberattack on the west. In doing so, he has plausible
deniability that the attack was carried out by the Russian
government and can publicly condemn the group in retaliatory
actions.
Users on dark web forums are becoming increasingly more vocal of
their support of Russia. With every action the west takes, it is
believed that support will grow. Should the United States choose
to conduct a cyberattack on Russian infrastructure, it will
undoubtedly provoke Russia to retaliate. The bottom line comes
down to three factors: how involved President Biden is willing
to get, how long can President Putin maintain a kinetic war with
Ukraine if outside countries are disrupting Russian
infrastructure, and how long can Ukraine continue to stave off
the Russian invaders.
Binary Defense analysts will continue to monitor forums for any
updates on the situation.
HTML https://binarydefense.com/dark-web-reactions-to-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/
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