6 ms·

Cyberattack hits Ukrainian government websites amid Russia tensions

135 points by sarmike31 5y ago

stunt 5y ago
We do not really have to rush to publish a short news article. We all regularly get this kind of breaking news in other places. I'm more happy to read a piece with technical analysis of the attack on the HN after a week.
trasz 5y ago
At the same time there’s a massive infoleak from the polish army.
- zeepzeep 5y ago
  Sauce?
  - Claude_Shannon 5y ago
    Massive is an understatement https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/gigantyczny-wyciek-danych-z-wojska-ponad-17-mln-pozycji-w-internecie/1mknjtf https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/gigantyczny-wyciek-danych-z-...
    - ricardobayes 5y ago
      How the heck is this possible with traffic light policies in place?
      - aix1 5y ago
        Traffic light policies?
        _wldu 5y ago
        I think the poster was joking about the effectiveness of the current IT security community (or ineffectiveness). "The Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) was created in order to facilitate greater sharing of information". More info here: https://www.cisa.gov/tlp https://www.cisa.gov/tlp
    - throwaway4good 5y ago
      What is it about?
      - Claude_Shannon 5y ago
        A database of Polish military assets - from screws and notebooks to anti-tank missiles and F-16 fighters - has leaked online. Some of the information is extremely valuable to foreign intelligence. According to our informant, a cyber security specialist, the database has already been downloaded by users from more than a dozen countries, including Russia and China. The leak has been confirmed unofficially by two independent sources connected with special services. The military is currently searching for the culprits and is estimating losses. The leak most likely originated from the Logistic Planning Headquarters in the Inspectorate of Armed Forces Support in Bydgoszcz The information found on the net includes, among others, armament of the Polish army, ammunition, spare parts for combat machines or specialist software The disclosed equipment includes also those purchased by the Polish army in the USA, Germany and Israel - This is strategic data, which is sought after by e.g. Russian intelligence - says Gen. Piotr Pytel, former head of the Military Counterintelligence Service. In his opinion, such information is worth huge money More information on Onet home page Data on the material resources of the Polish army appeared in the net on Sunday, 9 January - claim Onet sources. The army was to find out about it a day later. According to our sources, the leak was tracked by the military's National Cyber Security Centre, which informed the military services about it. The military data disclosed on the web amounts to 1 million 757 thousand 390 records. To show the scale of the leak, suffice it to say that firearms of calibre up to 30 mm and their parts and tooling alone amount to 2 thousand 800 items. Each item, or record, is the reported equipment requirements of each unit - from entire F-16s, to heavy weapons, their parts, ammunition for them, spare parts, to uniforms, underwear, blankets and computer equipment, and even flags and diplomas. From over 1.7 million disclosed records emerges a detailed state of possession of the entire Polish army, as well as its equipment shortages. The inventory makes it possible to determine, for example, which equipment is inoperable or what the Polish army is missing.
        avh02 5y ago
        or it's a honeypot and they want you to think things are inoperable. (not that i believe that, just a possible counter offence)
dandanua 5y ago
- sAbakumoff 5y ago
  pls don't mix the government and the country. the former is a crowd of criminals, the latter is a beautiful country with unique history, culture and traditions.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    > pls don't mix the government and the country. Exactly. Look at the kind of social media content and whatnot that the normal people there put out. Generally speaking the people of eastern Europe seem to have far more in common with the people of north America than either group does with the people of western Europe.
  - WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
    "The country" at large is supporting the government. Otherwise there would be sabotage left and right. Stalin may have been "the" bad guy, but there have been people actively producing millions of denunciations, right? So there's the "bad guy" Putin, but there are millions of "little people" serving his causes and seeing nothing bad about it. Just making a little money, always looking out for number one.
    - sAbakumoff 5y ago
      >> Otherwise there would be sabotage left and right Sabotage attempts in modern Russia are monitored and persecuted. Non-government orgs and media are declared to be "foreign actors". The opposition is effectively destroyed. Opposition leaders are convicted(unless they had a chance to flee). "Little people" do not necessarily support it, but they afraid for their freedom, their health and their life. You can't blame them for that
      - WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
        This only means there's a great body of people quite happy to exercise ultraviolence towards their fellow citizens and give them horrorshow tolchoks to their gullivers, which is my point exactly.
sAbakumoff 5y ago
In 2018 the U.S. Cyber Command just shut the fck down Russian troll factory [0] So, it seems that the US could help, but would they? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cyber-command-operation-disrupted-internet-access-of-russian-troll-factory-on-day-of-2018-midterms/2019/02/26/1827fc9e-36d6-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cy...
- tscherno 5y ago
  They do: https://generico.ru/2021/12/21/nyt-us-and-uk-send-team-of-cyber-experts-to-ukraine/ https://generico.ru/2021/12/21/nyt-us-and-uk-send-team-of-cy...
greendesk 5y ago
There are further attacks on newspapers labelled ‘non-Kremlin’ across Eastern Europe.
orbital-decay 5y ago
>"All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future." The message also reads "For Volyn, for OUN UPA, for Galicia, for Polesia, and for historical lands", but I guess Reuters can't be bothered with details.
- excircul 5y ago
  > For Volyn, for OUN UPA, for Galicia, for Polesia, and for historical lands Which are sensitive subjects in Polish-Ukrainian relations. The message was published in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, which according to several polish acquaintances of mine looks like something Google Translate would produce. Make no mistake who the real offender is.
  - yetihehe 5y ago
    Such provocations are standard modus operandi of Russians since at least 80's. They use sensitive subjects to sour relations between allies (divide and conquer).
    - capableweb 5y ago
      Lets not forget that it's standard modus operandi of every agency who do offensive "security", not just Russians.
      - juanani 5y ago
        [dead]
      - varjag 5y ago
        The pig head for mocking betrays Russian origin of this attack however, poor footers just can't help themselves.
        Mountain_Skies 5y ago
excircul 5y ago
Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov believes that the role of cybersecurity in today's world is exaggerated. He said this in an interview with LB.ua [1]. "I think the role of cybersecurity is a bit exaggerated. There is a lot of talk about it, but in fact few can name any real cases of cyber threats. Let me give a simple example. When we came to the President's Office, the IT team showed dashboards with a thousand attacks a day, overloaded servers, etc. Two weeks later, we fired them, and nothing happened for several months while we were assembling a new team." - Fedorov said. [1] https://en.lb.ua/news/2019/11/29/8183_role_cybersecurity_slightly.html https://en.lb.ua/news/2019/11/29/8183_role_cybersecurity_sli...
- routerl 5y ago
  I mean... if you can't be a good example, be a warning?
- have_faith 5y ago
  > we had no way of knowing what was happening but we know nothing happened
- nefitty 5y ago
  "The doctor told me I have a brain tumor. I don't feel sick. I ignored him. It's been two weeks and I feel fine."
  - imdsm 5y ago
    2 years later:
- raxxorrax 5y ago
  Firing IT is the worst you can do for IT security. I would still check if maybe they gave out the means to deface the site though... Honestly there is merit to the claim in my opinion. The security industry is full of scam, now even formerly reputable providers begin to sell very flawed solutions. But internal IT is not part of that. It is also a care about doing a sensible risk analysis. Your web server should maybe be isolated from critical systems as any other system the public can interact with.
martythemaniak 5y ago
Reuters headline on Dec 7,1941: "Ships sink at Pearl Harbour amid Japan tensions" Here's my suggestion when reading / thinking / discussing these matters: consider what the people in question actually think and want. Close to 100% of what I read on this topic, "NATO's expansion", "Russia's sphere of influence", etc treats the people in question as inanimate objects that are there for the US and Russia to play with. NATO did not expand - free people chose to join an organization because they believed it would be better for them. And it was. Perhaps in the future they will choose differently, you can just ask. Being close to Russia has been a catastrophy for all the places that were under its influnce and they're slowly realizing that and moving away. The closer you were to Russia, the harder this is.

135 points by sarmike31 5y ago

We do not really have to rush to publish a short news article. We all regularly get this kind of breaking news in other places. I'm more happy to read a piece with technical analysis of the attack on the HN after a week.

trasz 5y ago

At the same time there’s a massive infoleak from the polish army.

zeepzeep 5y ago
Sauce?
- Claude_Shannon 5y ago
  Massive is an understatement https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/gigantyczny-wyciek-danych-z-wojska-ponad-17-mln-pozycji-w-internecie/1mknjtf https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/gigantyczny-wyciek-danych-z-...
  - ricardobayes 5y ago
    How the heck is this possible with traffic light policies in place?
    - aix1 5y ago
      Traffic light policies?
      - _wldu 5y ago
        I think the poster was joking about the effectiveness of the current IT security community (or ineffectiveness). "The Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) was created in order to facilitate greater sharing of information". More info here: https://www.cisa.gov/tlp https://www.cisa.gov/tlp
  - throwaway4good 5y ago
    What is it about?
    - Claude_Shannon 5y ago
      A database of Polish military assets - from screws and notebooks to anti-tank missiles and F-16 fighters - has leaked online. Some of the information is extremely valuable to foreign intelligence. According to our informant, a cyber security specialist, the database has already been downloaded by users from more than a dozen countries, including Russia and China. The leak has been confirmed unofficially by two independent sources connected with special services. The military is currently searching for the culprits and is estimating losses. The leak most likely originated from the Logistic Planning Headquarters in the Inspectorate of Armed Forces Support in Bydgoszcz The information found on the net includes, among others, armament of the Polish army, ammunition, spare parts for combat machines or specialist software The disclosed equipment includes also those purchased by the Polish army in the USA, Germany and Israel - This is strategic data, which is sought after by e.g. Russian intelligence - says Gen. Piotr Pytel, former head of the Military Counterintelligence Service. In his opinion, such information is worth huge money More information on Onet home page Data on the material resources of the Polish army appeared in the net on Sunday, 9 January - claim Onet sources. The army was to find out about it a day later. According to our sources, the leak was tracked by the military's National Cyber Security Centre, which informed the military services about it. The military data disclosed on the web amounts to 1 million 757 thousand 390 records. To show the scale of the leak, suffice it to say that firearms of calibre up to 30 mm and their parts and tooling alone amount to 2 thousand 800 items. Each item, or record, is the reported equipment requirements of each unit - from entire F-16s, to heavy weapons, their parts, ammunition for them, spare parts, to uniforms, underwear, blankets and computer equipment, and even flags and diplomas. From over 1.7 million disclosed records emerges a detailed state of possession of the entire Polish army, as well as its equipment shortages. The inventory makes it possible to determine, for example, which equipment is inoperable or what the Polish army is missing.
      - avh02 5y ago
        or it's a honeypot and they want you to think things are inoperable. (not that i believe that, just a possible counter offence)

dandanua 5y ago

sAbakumoff 5y ago
pls don't mix the government and the country. the former is a crowd of criminals, the latter is a beautiful country with unique history, culture and traditions.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  > pls don't mix the government and the country. Exactly. Look at the kind of social media content and whatnot that the normal people there put out. Generally speaking the people of eastern Europe seem to have far more in common with the people of north America than either group does with the people of western Europe.
- WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
  "The country" at large is supporting the government. Otherwise there would be sabotage left and right. Stalin may have been "the" bad guy, but there have been people actively producing millions of denunciations, right? So there's the "bad guy" Putin, but there are millions of "little people" serving his causes and seeing nothing bad about it. Just making a little money, always looking out for number one.
  - sAbakumoff 5y ago
    >> Otherwise there would be sabotage left and right Sabotage attempts in modern Russia are monitored and persecuted. Non-government orgs and media are declared to be "foreign actors". The opposition is effectively destroyed. Opposition leaders are convicted(unless they had a chance to flee). "Little people" do not necessarily support it, but they afraid for their freedom, their health and their life. You can't blame them for that
    - WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
      This only means there's a great body of people quite happy to exercise ultraviolence towards their fellow citizens and give them horrorshow tolchoks to their gullivers, which is my point exactly.

sAbakumoff 5y ago

In 2018 the U.S. Cyber Command just shut the fck down Russian troll factory [0] So, it seems that the US could help, but would they? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cyber-command-operation-disrupted-internet-access-of-russian-troll-factory-on-day-of-2018-midterms/2019/02/26/1827fc9e-36d6-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cy...

tscherno 5y ago
They do: https://generico.ru/2021/12/21/nyt-us-and-uk-send-team-of-cyber-experts-to-ukraine/ https://generico.ru/2021/12/21/nyt-us-and-uk-send-team-of-cy...

greendesk 5y ago

There are further attacks on newspapers labelled ‘non-Kremlin’ across Eastern Europe.

orbital-decay 5y ago

>"All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst. This is for your past, present and future." The message also reads "For Volyn, for OUN UPA, for Galicia, for Polesia, and for historical lands", but I guess Reuters can't be bothered with details.

excircul 5y ago
> For Volyn, for OUN UPA, for Galicia, for Polesia, and for historical lands Which are sensitive subjects in Polish-Ukrainian relations. The message was published in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish, which according to several polish acquaintances of mine looks like something Google Translate would produce. Make no mistake who the real offender is.
- yetihehe 5y ago
  Such provocations are standard modus operandi of Russians since at least 80's. They use sensitive subjects to sour relations between allies (divide and conquer).
  - capableweb 5y ago
    Lets not forget that it's standard modus operandi of every agency who do offensive "security", not just Russians.
    - juanani 5y ago
      [dead]
    - varjag 5y ago
      The pig head for mocking betrays Russian origin of this attack however, poor footers just can't help themselves.
      - Mountain_Skies 5y ago

excircul 5y ago

Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov believes that the role of cybersecurity in today's world is exaggerated. He said this in an interview with LB.ua [1]. "I think the role of cybersecurity is a bit exaggerated. There is a lot of talk about it, but in fact few can name any real cases of cyber threats. Let me give a simple example. When we came to the President's Office, the IT team showed dashboards with a thousand attacks a day, overloaded servers, etc. Two weeks later, we fired them, and nothing happened for several months while we were assembling a new team." - Fedorov said. [1] https://en.lb.ua/news/2019/11/29/8183_role_cybersecurity_slightly.html https://en.lb.ua/news/2019/11/29/8183_role_cybersecurity_sli...

routerl 5y ago
I mean... if you can't be a good example, be a warning?
have_faith 5y ago
> we had no way of knowing what was happening but we know nothing happened
nefitty 5y ago
"The doctor told me I have a brain tumor. I don't feel sick. I ignored him. It's been two weeks and I feel fine."
- imdsm 5y ago
  2 years later:
raxxorrax 5y ago
Firing IT is the worst you can do for IT security. I would still check if maybe they gave out the means to deface the site though... Honestly there is merit to the claim in my opinion. The security industry is full of scam, now even formerly reputable providers begin to sell very flawed solutions. But internal IT is not part of that. It is also a care about doing a sensible risk analysis. Your web server should maybe be isolated from critical systems as any other system the public can interact with.

martythemaniak 5y ago

Reuters headline on Dec 7,1941: "Ships sink at Pearl Harbour amid Japan tensions" Here's my suggestion when reading / thinking / discussing these matters: consider what the people in question actually think and want. Close to 100% of what I read on this topic, "NATO's expansion", "Russia's sphere of influence", etc treats the people in question as inanimate objects that are there for the US and Russia to play with. NATO did not expand - free people chose to join an organization because they believed it would be better for them. And it was. Perhaps in the future they will choose differently, you can just ask. Being close to Russia has been a catastrophy for all the places that were under its influnce and they're slowly realizing that and moving away. The closer you were to Russia, the harder this is.