The war between Ukraine and Russia was, right from the start, also a “cyberwar“. The young Ukrainian minister has always reiterated this Mykhailo Fedorovto whom Zelensky entrusted the digital transition of the country: “The cyber war is one more tool for our army”.
“A modern war requires modern solutions,” Fedorov argues. And therefore it requires hacker. The Ukrainian minister immediately set up an army of 300,000 volunteers, the IT Armywhich since last February has been hitting Russian institutional sites and key companies for thePutin’s economy.
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Sometimes the actions of Ukrainian hackers result in theatrical hits. Like when they managed to get a message on the Russian state TV – “On your hands is the blood of the Ukrainians”- addressed to viewers who are victims of the government censorship. More recently, a viral video showed how the hackers themselves managed to send Moscow taxis haywire, calling all the drivers in the city center.
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The activity of Ukrainian hackers, however, also has a specific weight on army initiatives. He tells it Nikita Knysh, one of them, contacted and interviewed by the Financial Times. Knysh, 30, began attacking Russia in the early hours of Putin’s invasion. As an employee of the SBU, the Security Service of UkraineKnysh has turned into a cyber soldier.
The Financial Times has not been able to verify all the transactions in which Knysh claims to have been involved. “However – the American newspaper reads – the Financial Times spoke with officials, authorities and fellow hackers who vouched for him and examined images, videos and log data that supported some of his claims.”
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One of the Ukrainian hacker’s stories concerns a curious one ploy used to track down Russian soldiers who were in a base near the occupied city of Melitopolsouth of the country.
Knysh and his colleagues created fake Facebook profiles of women and on other social media active in Russia. And thanks to the account fake they would ask for and obtain photos from Russian soldiers engaged in the war. You don’t have to be a hacker to know that a photo can be geolocated: you can find out quite easily, in short, where this was taken. But evidently the Russian soldiers underestimated the danger. And Knysh and his comrades from the IT Army they took advantage of this to understand exactly where the attackers were.
At that point the information on the position of the Russian soldiers was forwarded to the Ukrainian army. When Knysh saw on TV that that area had been swept away by artilleryhe thought: “I work, I can really help my country”.