Tag Archive for: Ukraine

China’s Hikvision, Dahua Security Cameras Heighten Risks Of Russian Attacks On Ukraine


KYIV – As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears the two-year mark, hundreds of thousands of Chinese-made Hikvision and Dahua video-surveillance cameras, used by government-run security systems, residences, and private companies throughout Ukraine, heighten the risks of attacks by the Russian military, Ukrainian digital-security experts and government officials fear.

When Russian missiles struck Kyiv in a January 2 attack that killed at least three people, two ordinary outdoor CCTV cameras – one for a condominium, the other for a parking lot — helped guide their way, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims.

A heavily damaged building in Kyiv which was hit by a missile on January 2 that may have been guided by CCTV cameras.

A heavily damaged building in Kyiv which was hit by a missile on January 2 that may have been guided by CCTV cameras.

After hacking the cameras, Russian intelligence used them “to spy on the Defense Forces in the capital” and to record images of “critical infrastructure facilities,” according to the SBU.

One of those cameras was a 2016 Chinese-made Hikvision device, a law enforcement official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject told Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.

“Such cameras are usually just connected to the Internet and are already relatively outdated — that is, with software that has not been updated for a long time and has many known vulnerabilities,” said Serhiy Denysenko, executive director of the Ukrainian information-security company CyberLab’s Digital Forensics Laboratory.

Information security specialist Serhiy Denysenko (left) with Schemes journalist Kyrylo Ovsyaniy.

Information security specialist Serhiy Denysenko (left) with Schemes journalist Kyrylo Ovsyaniy.

Manufacturers’ “basic” camera software means that “hackers — or, in this case, the Russian special services – who are scanning the Internet can find this camera and gain access to it,” Denysenko said.

To test the SBU’s claims, a Digital Forensics Laboratory specialist hacked into a 2015 Hikvision CCTV camera in about 15 minutes.

From 2014 to 2022, three Ukrainian companies imported over 875,000 CCTV cameras and other devices related to video surveillance made by Hikvision, and a single company imported nearly 1.1 million cameras and other devices related to video…

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How Ukraine built a volunteer IT army from scratch


As Russian bombs began to fall across Ukraine in February 2022, many faced a daunting choice: stay and fight or flee for safety. Among them was Ted, a tech entrepreneur living in Kyiv (who is using a pseudonym for security concerns). Initially taking his family to safety in Lviv, Ted wanted to fight. Lacking military skills, Ted like many other Ukrainians who had a tech background wanted to contribute on other battle fronts.

His wife was a public servant who was well-connected with the Ukrainian government. Through conversations with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, an idea arose to leverage people with tech backgrounds to defend the country on the cyber battlefield. What followed was the historic formation of a volunteer hacker army fighting on Ukraine’s behalf – the world’s first such group in cyber warfare.

The IT Army of Ukraine emerged just two days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov issued a rallying cry to all volunteers willing to join the hacker ranks of the IT army to help defend Ukraine. He proclaimed, “We continue to fight on the cyber front.”

At its peak, the volunteer IT army’s Telegram channel reached around 300,000 members in March 2022.

IT army of Ukraine mykhailov Fedorov digital transformation Ukraine cyber troops
Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov tells about the achievements of the IT Army of Ukraine during the results of his agency over 2023. Photo: IT Army of Ukraine/FB

Fedorov’s call to action resonates with the historical appeal of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II – Winston Churchill’s famous directive to the SOE was to “set Europe ablaze,” inspiring a similar spirit of resistance in the digital domain.

“We tried to activate every part of society to resist Russia’s war,” Ted said of the early days of the war. Ukrainian officials and volunteers wanted to see how they could leverage the highly talented population of our society, “keeping in mind our software developers and people in the IT sector,” said Ted.

In the early days, organizers focused on the basics, such as creating a Telegram channel and doing the groundwork to get operations going….

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Ukraine Claims Revenge Hack Against Moscow Internet Provider


Sources reportedly tipped off Ukraine media to a cyberattack launched this week by the Blackjack cyber group, linked to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), that they claim was able to “destroy” the servers of Moscow Internet service provider M9 Telecom.

The ISP’s website was operational on Jan. 9.

Unnamed sources told state-run Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform that the cyber operation was in retaliation for the Russia-backed breach of Kyivstar mobile phone operator Dec. 12, which caused communications blackouts across Ukraine. The source reportedly added the M9 Telecom cyberattack was just a “warm up” for more “serious revenge for Kyivstar.”

The Blackjack cyber group likewise claimed credit for the late December breach of Moscow’s Rosvodokanal water utility, which the group claimed it was able to pull off with the help of the SBU.

Earlier this month, the SBU’s cyber chief, Illia Vitiuk, warned that Russia’s compromise of Kyivstar, a modern, private company should signal to Western countries that nothing is beyond the reach of sophisticated Russian cyber threats.

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Ukraine says Russian hackers penetrated major telecoms network for months – POLITICO


Russian hackers were inside Ukrainian telecoms giant Kyivstar’s system from at least May last year in a cyberattack which crippled its services in December, Ukraine’s top cyber spy said.

In an interview with Reuters published Thursday, Illia Vitiuk, head of the Security Service of Ukraine’s cybersecurity department, said: “This attack is a big message, a big warning, not only to Ukraine, but for the whole Western world to understand that no one is actually untouchable,” adding it wiped “almost everything,” including thousands of virtual servers and PCs.

The attack caused more than 24.3 million Kyivstar customers to lose phone reception, with banks reporting disruptions to their services and Ukrainians in the country’s eastern war zone being left without a connection. Vitiuk has attributed the attack to Sandworm, a Russian military intelligence cyberwarfare unit which has been linked to cyberattacks in Ukraine and elsewhere.

“For now, we can say securely, that they were in the system at least since May 2023,” Vitiuk said, adding, “I cannot say right now, since what time they had … full access: probably at least since November.”

In a video statement in December, Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov said: “Unfortunately, the war with Russia has several dimensions. One of them is in cyberspace.”

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