Ukrainian Hackers Hit Cybersecurity Firm in Russia, Destroying Terabytes of Information and Encrypting Hundreds of Machines

Cyber Anarchy Squad, a Ukrainian hacking group, has hit Russian cybersecurity company Avapost, stealing hundreds of gigabytes of information, destroying terabytes of data, and encrypting hundreds of virtual machines within the firm's infrastructure.

Only a few days earlier, Ukrainian hackers went after the banking system in Russia, creating serious problems. A number of internet providers were affected as well. While much of that attack focused on hampering access to some internet services, the attack on the cybersecurity company was different. In this case, hackers had direct access to the firm's infrastructure.

Compromising a security company's infrastructure is a much bigger problem because it can also mean that, depending on the type of attack, the hackers could go after the clients of the security provider.

According to the attackers, who posted some of the information on Twitter, Avapost's clients include the Rosselkhozbank, the Bank of Russia, the Federal Tax Service of the RF, the Pension Fund of the RF, the Moscow Department of Information Technology, Megafon, MTS Bank, Askona and many others.

The same company develops multi-factor authentication for many governmental services and institutions. According to a post on Telegram, initially mentioned by The Record, the hackers stole around 390 GB of information, destroyed around 60 TB of data and encrypted 405 virtual machines.

Ukrainian hackers belonging to various official institutions and other pro-Ukrainian groups have had a lot of success lately in attacking critical parts of Russia's telecom, banking and internet infrastructure. On the other hand, Russia has been launching hundreds of attacks since its invasion began, often using phishing as a primary vector in an attempt to penetrate the security of official Ukrainian institutions.