Russian hackers hijack Ukrainian TVs to show Victory Day parade

Russian hackers have recently hijacked numerous Ukrainian television channels to broadcast a Victory Day parade in Moscow memorialising Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II. Based on reports, the threat actors hacked the Ukrainian organisation that supervises the television and radio transmission, allowing them to disrupt the broadcast of at least 15 television channels owned by Starlight Media.

Additional details about the hack also uncovered that the hackers disrupted the Astra communication satellites owned and operated by the Luxembourg corporation SES. According to this entity, these interventions occur regularly, and the Russian-affiliated threat groups are typically the perpetrators of such activities.

A Ukrainian agency also explained that these attacks are another stage of information war that Russia executes against Ukraine since Ukrainian media and consumers of information become the direct object of aggression.

Thus, the Ukrainian government advises broadcasters to employ alternative methods of receiving the signal and respond quickly to interventions to avoid disruptions executed by the aggressor country.

 

Russian hackers have also targeted other television networks outside Ukraine.

 

Earlier this week, Russian hackers also allegedly orchestrated an attack that took over the Latvian television network Balticom to broadcast the victory march in Moscow. According to investigations, Balticom’s infrastructure was not penetrated, but a cyberattack targeted the company’s interactive TV server, headquartered in Bulgaria.

On the other hand, Latvia’s computer emergency response team revealed that the event is part of the Russian hybrid war, and such campaigns will likely continue in the future.

In response to Russian attacks, suspected Ukrainian hackers seized multiple TV networks in a Russian-annexed Ukrainian peninsula.

Furthermore, a Russian news outlet reported that the retaliating hackers had breached networks of various broadcasting services in the Russian provinces of Bashkiria and the towns of Orenburg, Omsk, and Irkutsk to broadcast Ukrainian-related videos as well as opposition media headlines.

The geopolitical conflict between the two countries has now reached new heights after media outlets became subject to cyberattacks to display propaganda that would benefit their causes. Therefore, experts expect these cybercriminal campaigns to continue since they could significantly change the favour of war to any country that would acquire such an advantage.