Ukraine has responded to Russia’s invasion by calling on hackers around the world to conduct “operational tasks” against specific Russian corporations, banks, and government agencies.
The call to action was issued on Feb. 26 by Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also the country’s Minister of Digital Transformation, in the following tweet:
Hackers who heed Fedorov’s call for aid can join a Telegram group called “IT ARMY of Ukraine” to view a list of targets, get updates on this aspect of the conflict, and receive further instructions.
Security researcher Kevin Beaumont has shared information about this group’s activities on Twitter—and pointed out that participating in these efforts is probably ill-advised:
That doesn’t seem to have stopped people from joining the so-called IT ARMY of Ukraine; Telegram indicates that the group has more than 163,000 subscribers at time of writing. (Although many of them are probably observers rather than active participants.)
The initial list of targets was confined to websites associated with Russia’s business interests, state-backed media, and government agencies. But further calls to action have targeted YouTube channels accused of spreading misinformation, cloud service providers, and others.
This volunteer IT ARMY of Ukraine has also been asked to target Belarus, and has responded by disrupting access to websites operated by various Belarusian ministries. It’s not clear if Belarus will remain a target as it prepares to host talks between Russia and Ukraine.
