Ukraine Calls country’s Underground Hacker Help to Protect Critical Infrastructure

The Ukrainian Government has stumbled since the attack from Russia has been increasing steadily. Russian forces have attacked many Ukraine cities leaving many residents homeless. Most of the residents fled to the Capital of the country, Kyiv. 

With all the current events, Hacker forums has received a request on Thursday morning. The government of Ukraine is asking for volunteers from the hacker underground to defend critical infrastructure and to spy on Russian troops, said by two people involved in the project.

The post reads, “Ukrainian cybercommunity! It’s time to get involved in the cyber defense of our country” along with an application from Google docs, asking for hackers and cybersecurity experts. Their specialities must be listed on the application such as malware development, reverse engineering and other professional references.

Yegor Aushev was the one that posted it on the forum. He also said that he was contacted by a senior Defense Ministry official on Thursday. It seems like another person was also contacted by the Defense ministry. Aushev is the co-founder of Cyber Unit Technologies, a firm who is known for working with Ukraine’s Government for Defense of Critical Infrastructure.

One of the Defense officials at Ukraine’s embassy in Washington said that he cannot confirm or deny that information. 

As Aushev said, the volunteers will be divided as defensive and offensive cyber units. While the defense units will defend against critical infrastructures like power plants and water systems, the offensive volunteer units will conduct digital espionage operations against Russian forces. In 2015, Ukrainians lost electricity due to Russian state hackers.

A day before the request from the Ministry of Defense, researchers at ESET found a piece of destructive software circulating and hitting hundreds of computers in Ukraine.

Russians were suspected of this act since they have been reported to have hacked other countries too. Government agencies and financial institutions were affected by this malware. However, Russia has denied it.

An Ukraine security official said that there was no military cyber force with the country and also said that it has become their task to create them this year. “The effort to build a cyber military force is becoming late in the game”, Aushev added.

Aushev received hundreds of applicants which he will vet to ensure no Russian agents are involved.

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