White House says Russian military intelligence behind cyber attacks on Ukraine
While Ukrainian forces fight against the Russian military’s invasion, hackers from around the world are causing disruption to Russia’s digital infrastructure.
Hacking groups such as Anonymous and the Cyber Partisans have claimed responsibility for cyberattacks on Russia’s banks, state broadcaster RT, and a Belarusian rail network reportedly used to move troops from Russia to Ukraine.
Peace talks between the two countries are ongoing between the two nations, but it remains unclear how long the bloodshed will last. Currently, these cyber groups have said that they stand with Ukraine against Russia’s powerful online forces – causing disruption to stop the country’s own attacks against Ukraine and the West.
“DDoS alone will not bring down a regime”, one German Anonymous splinter group said in a blog post, but “Putin, who is using hacker squads and troll armies against Western democracies, is getting a sip of his own bitter medicine”.
The intention is to “keep the Russian IT apparatus busy and to provide Putin’s hacker troops … with defensive work so that they cannot do anything in Ukraine or the West . Obtaining information is also an important point and you just don’t see a lot of what activists are currently doing.”
Samsung stops shipping to Russia
Samsung seems to have complied with a request from the Ukrainian government to stop shipping products to Russia.
Mykhailo Fedorov urged Samsung to block access to Samsung Pay and the Galaxy Store to send a message against “bloody authoritarian aggression” last week.
Now, Bloomberg reports that Samsung has suspended product shipments to Russia – including computer chips, smartphones, and consumer electronics.
“Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families,” Samsung said.
Adam Smith7 March 2022 10:35
Samsung stops shipping to Russia
Samsung seems to have complied with a request from the Ukrainian government to stop shipping products to Russia.
Mykhailo Fedorov urged Samsung to block access to Samsung Pay and the Galaxy Store to send a message against “bloody authoritarian aggression” last week.
Now, Bloomberg reports that Samsung has suspended product shipments to Russia – including computer chips, smartphones, and consumer electronics.
“Our thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families,” Samsung said.
Adam Smith7 March 2022 10:35
TikTok suspends posting in Russia
“In light of Russia’s new ‘fake news’ law, we have no choice but to suspend livestreaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law,” TikTok said on its official Twitter account.
“Our in-app messaging service will not be affected,” it added.
Adam Smith7 March 2022 09:57
Netflix suspends its service in Russia as Western companies take stand over Ukraine invasion
Netflix has suspended its service in Russia, becoming the latest in a growing list of Western companies to take a stand over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Given the circumstances on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The total shutdown comes just days after Netflix announced it was pausing all future projects and acquisitions in the country.
Adam Smith7 March 2022 09:47
Anonymous hacks Russian state TV with Ukraine footage
Anonymous hacked streaming services and TV news channels in Russia to broadcast footage of the country’s war with Ukraine amid a heavy clampdown on information by Vladimir Putin’s government, according to reports.
“The hacking collective #Anonymous hacked into the Russian streaming services Wink and Ivi (like Netflix) and live TV channels Russia 24, Channel One, Moscow 24 to broadcast war footage from Ukraine [today],” it announced on Twitter with video footage.
The footage showed a message at the end, stating that “ordinary Russians are against the war” and called for Russians to oppose the attack on Ukraine.
Adam Smith7 March 2022 09:43
Anonymous claims 2,500 hacks
The hacking collective Anonymous has now claimed responsibility for 2,500 attacks on “Russian & Belarusian gov’t, state media outlets, banks, hospitals, airports [and] companies.
This number has risen by 1,000 since earlier this week – however, since anyone can be associated with Anonymous, this figure is difficult to verify.
Adam Smith4 March 2022 11:52
Russia to remain on internet as authorities refuse Ukraine’s demand to disconnect the country
On Monday, Andrii Nabok and vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, emailed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) to “introduce strict sanctions against the Russian Federation in the field of DNS regulation”.
Their request, however, has been dismissed. “As you know, the Internet is a decentralized system. No one actor has the ability to control it or shut it down,” ICANN chief Göran Marby wrote in his response.
“Our mission does not extend to taking punitive actions, issuing sanctions, or restricting access against segments of the Internet — regardless of the provocations,” he added. “Essentially, ICANN has been built to ensure that the Internet works, not for its coordination role to be used to stop it from working.”
Adam Smith4 March 2022 10:49
Russia could refuse to launch UK satellites, head of space agency suggests
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, is contracted to conduct a launch on behalf of OneWeb, the satellite firm part owned by the British government. It is scheduled to happen from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday.
But if OneWeb is not able to give a guarantee that the satellites will not be used for military purposes by Friday evening, Russia’s rocket will no longer conduct the launch, according to Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin.
Adam Smith3 March 2022 23:59
Ukraine requests dogecoin donations as meme coin ‘exceeds Russian ruble’
The country has already raised more than $33 million worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since launching a fundraiser over the weekend.
“Dogecoin exceeded Russian ruble in value,” Mr Fedorov tweeted on Wednesday.
Adam Smith3 March 2022 22:00
The rise of hoax news: How a shameful new industry is profiting from war
Adam Smith3 March 2022 21:00
