SBU Exposes FSB’s Hacker Unit Which Targeted Ukrainian Government Agencies

The experts of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) exposed hackers of the world-famous Armagedon group, which launched more than 5,000 cyber attacks on government agencies and critical infrastructure facilities of Ukraine.

As the SBU informs, the attackers were officers of the “Crimean” FSB department, as well as traitors who sided with the enemy after the occupation of the peninsula in 2014.

The SBU intercepted hackers’ conversations, identified the perpetrators by name, and obtained irrefutable evidence of their involvement in cyber attacks even though criminals used the FSB’s malicious software and means of anonymisation and “cover-up” on the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ZqLsGOhcA

According to available information, the Armagedon hacker group is a special project of the FSB of the Russian Federation, focusing on Ukraine. This “area of activity” is coordinated by the 18th Centre of the FSB of the Russian Federation (Information Security Centre) headquartered in Moscow.

Since the Russian aggression in 2014, the FSB has carried out more than 5,000 cyber attacks and tried to “infect” more than 1,500 Ukrainian government computer systems. The main goals of the attackers were:

• To gain control over critical infrastructure facilities (power plants, heat and water supply systems)
• To steal and collect intelligence data, including classified information (security and defence sector, government agencies)
• To conduct campaigns of information and psychological influence
• To block information systems

Investigative actions and expert studies are currently underway to bring the FSB officers to justice. Five members of the hacker group have been charged in absentia.

Bohdan Marusyak