Hacker groups split up: some of them support Russia, others Ukraine

Amid the backdrop of the barbaric invasion of the Russian army into the territory of Ukraine, hacker groups split into two camps: some declared that they supported the actions of the Russian authorities, while others, on the contrary, sided with Ukraine.

Bleeping Computer says that there has been a serious split in the hacker community.

For example, the administrator of the database and trading platform RaidForums openly stated that he was imposing his own sanctions and blocking access for users from Russia. He made his position clear, saying that he opposes the Kremlin’s actions.

Another RaidForums participant posted an even harsher message as a warning to the “Russians”. He also posted on the forum a database with e-mail addresses and hashed passwords and the fsb.ru domain. Although the authenticity of this information has not yet been verified, the same user previously hosted similar databases for US .mil domains.

Let me remind you that we also said that Anonymous hackers declared war on the Russian government.

At the same time, extortionist groups also took up the opposite sides of the conflict. For example, members of one of the most aggressive hacker groups, Conti, declared “the full support of the Russian government” and threatened to retaliate with cyberattacks against anyone who attacks Russia, promising to use all their resources “to strike back at the enemy’s critical infrastructures.”

A little later, the hackers changed the statement, noting that in doing so they “do not ally with any government, and condemn the ongoing war”.

Another far less well-known hack group, CoomingProject, has also said it will support the Russian government if cyberattacks are directed against the country.

Interesting statistics about the “political position” of various hacker groups are also collected by journalists from The Record. According to them, two more groups have publicly declared their position.

UNC1151, allegedly based in Minsk, supports Russia. This hack group is considered to be Belarusian “government hackers” and is allegedly already working on hacking the emails of Ukrainian military personnel.

The Red Bandits also took the side of Russia. Back on February 22, the group announced on Twitter:

We also said that the FBI and NSA release a statement about attacks by Russian hackers.