Russia hacks surveillance cameras on European borders to disrupt aid to Ukraine – media
The UK's intelligence service says that a unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense (GRU) has gained access to cameras at crossings, military facilities and railway stations at key European points, The Guardian reports.
“A unit of Russia’s military intelligence services is accused of using a host of methods to target organisations delivering ‘foreign assistance,’ by hacking into cameras at crossings and railway stations and near military installations. GRU Unit 26165 is also accused of sending phishing emails containing pornography and fake professional information and obtaining stolen account passwords to get into systems,” the report notes.
It was claimed the unit – also known as APT 28 and Fancy Bear – has conducted the malicious cyber-campaign against public and private organisations in Nato states since 2022.
“In addition to targeting logistics entities, unit 26165 actors likely used access to private cameras at key locations, such as near border crossings, military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials into Ukraine,” the report says. “The actors also used legitimate municipal services, such as traffic cams.”
About 10,000 cameras were said to have been accessed near “military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials into Ukraine”, of which 80% were in Ukraine and 10% in Romania. It is claimed 4% of the cameras targeted were in Poland, 2.8% in Hungary and 1.7% in Slovakia. The locations of the remaining cameras targeted were not provided. The hacking would have provided access to a “snapshot” of the cameras’ images, it is said.
Other attempts were made that were designed to gather sensitive information on shipments, such as train schedules and shipping manifests, it is claimed.
“In at least one instance, the actors attempted to use voice phishing to gain access to privileged accounts by impersonating IT staff,” says the advisory from 10 countries including the US, France and Germany.
As reported, the Dutch Ministry of Defense, citing research by a number of specialized structures, stated that Russian military intelligence is actively engaged in cyberspace, and that a special GRU cyber unit, better known as APT 28, is responsible for this, the purpose of which, in particular, is to monitor and disrupt Western military support for Ukraine.
