Cyber War in Ukraine: Hacktivism or State-Sponsored Spying? 

Hacker activism and the cyber war in Ukraine entered a dangerous new phase in early 2022 when a group styling itself ‘Belarusian Cyber Partisans’ claimed responsibility for sabotaging railways to slow the transfer of Russian forces into the war-ravaged country. 

Modern hacktavists

The hacker activists - ‘hacktavists’, as they’re called - added a threat: “The internal network will be disconnected until the Russian troops leave the territory of Belarus and the participation of the Belarusian military forces in the fascist aggression ceases.”

When Ukraine's government called for a volunteer 'IT Army', the cyber world responded but the combination of cyber warriors without a leader and Russia’s boots-on-the-ground invasion of Ukraine could have chilling consequences worldwide. An estimated 400,000 hackers from 50 groups including Anonymous have injected themselves into a deadly war with a nuclear superpower. 

“This shocking act by Russia has brought together the technology community in ways I have never seen,” said Kevin McDonald, a SPYEX consultant and expert in cybersecurity. “That community has many facets of which hacktivists are one. There is no doubt that unanimity of purpose has arisen in the world of purist hackers, hacktivists, and separately cyber-criminals.”

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