TLP:CLEAR

RUSSIA’S
CYBER
TACTICS
H1’2023

Lessons Learned:
Shift in the Patterns, Goals, and Capacity of the Russian Government
and Government-Controlled Groups

Threat Research Report

September 2023

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INTRODUCTION

Cyberwarfare has evolved rapidly since 2022. Russian malicious actors are finding
new and effective ways to support Russia's military operations, both on the
battlefield and against civilians. This has become a signature strategy of the
Russian war against Ukraine, and assessment of their tactics is highly important
for the strengthening of security and protection around the globe.

This research is based on data collected by the State Service of Special

Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP) during its work to
repel attacks by Russian hackers during the war. The SSSCIP constantly analyzes
the attackers’ behavior, goals, techniques, patterns, and capabilities. This
information is essential for understanding the threat posed by Russia to countries
around the world.

The report is a summary of the continuous interchange of lessons learned that

have been shared with the international expert community, journalists, and IT
professionals by SSSCIP and CERT-UA. You can also see the 2022 summary
report here and subscribe to receive other analytical documents from the
SSSCIP.
We are constantly evolving, and for each cyberattack described in this report, we
analyze the context (timing, objectives, impact), victimology (targeted sectors,
countries), main tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and, when applicable,
attribution based on our internal experience, markers, and observations.

This is our 2nd analysis of the active phase of cyber component in this war. It is
our attempt at taking a step back from the day-to-day events, pierce through the
fog of war and reveal a bigger picture. A picture that could enable all our partners
to learn and adapt to a new era of active cyber aggression. Considering the
lessons learned from monitoring shifts in Russian cyber tactics during the most
active phase of cyber and kinetic operations the Cyber community gain the
following value to predict/model:

1. Future Target Selection: Analyzing how Russian cyber tactics have evolved in
terms of target selection can provide insights into potential future targets. This could include critical
infrastructure, government agencies, or specific industries.

2. Attribution and Deniability: Understanding how Russian cyber actors have

manipulated attribution and maintained deniability can help anticipate their tactics in future operations,
especially in terms of false flag operations.
3. Hybrid Warfare Strategies: Examining how cyber tactics have been integrated
into Russia's hybrid warfare strategies can provide clues about their intentions and how they might
employ cyber capabilities in future geopolitical conflicts.

4. Advanced Malware and Techniques: Identifying the advanced malware and

techniques employed by Russian cyber actors can help forecast the development of new tools and
methods in future attacks.

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5. Collaborative Threat Actor Networks: Studying the relationships between

Russian threat actor groups and their collaboration with other state-sponsored or non-state entities
can shed light on potential alliances and cooperative strategies in upcoming conflicts.

To better understand historical changes in objectives of an Russian Advanced

Persistent Threat (APT) groups and their hacking teams participating in attack
campaigns against Ukraine — we encourage you to read our previous report —
Russia's Cyber Tactics: Lessons Learned in 2022.

“WE TAKE A HUGE PAGE OUT OF UKRAINE’S

PLAYBOOK. WE’VE PROBABLY LEARNED AS
MUCH FROM YOU AS YOU ARE LEARNING
FROM US.”
Jen Easterly
the director of the US Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Agency

“UKRAINE'S CYBER DEFENSE COMMUNITY IS SINCERELY

GRATEFUL FOR THE PROVIDED SUPPORT FROM OUR
ALLIES. WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE TECHNOLOGIES
AND TOOLS THAT HAVE PROVEN INVALUABLE IN
HELPING US WITHSTAND THE RUSSIAN THREAT. OUR
ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THESE TOOLS AND
OUR FIRSTHAND KNOWLEDGE OF THE RUSSIAN
ADVERSARY IS A CRITICAL RESOURCE FOR

EVERY COUNTRY THAT IS SEEKING TO

BUILD STRONGER CYBER RESILIENCE.”
Viktor Zhora
Deputy Head of the State Servise of Special Comunications and
information Protection of Ukraine

https://www.ft.com/content/c7038f7e-48fb-4d76-a608-96eec217a654

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KEY FINDINGS AND

INSIGHTS FOR THE FIRST 6
MONTHS OF 2023
The Russian invasion has triggered a notable shift in the Russian
cybercriminal ecosystem that will likely have long-term implications for
coordination between criminal groups and the scale of cybercrime worldwide.

The shift from hack and encrypt attacks to actual offensive espionage and
influence operations will keep the bar for sophisticated instructions high for
further escalation around the globe after the Ukrainian victory on the battlefield.

Key Insights:
2X GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF INCIDENTS WHERE CERT UA WAS
INVOLVED IN INVESTIGATIONS & FORENSICS
Despite all improvements implemented by Ukrainian authorities (from utilizing the
most modern protection stack to many other enhancements), the number of
incidents doubled in the last 6 months: from an average of 1.9 incidents per day
(57 per month) in H2’22 to 4-5 per day (128 per month) in H1’23.

Russian state-controlled adversaries brace for the long stand against the West and
add more people to increase the capacity and speed of the attacks.

THE CIVIC & LAW-ENFORCEMENT SECTOR IS DOMINATING

ACROSS ESPIONAGE TARGETS
In the first half of 2023, we observed a sustained interest in the civic sector and
law enforcement organizations. During this period, we encountered espionage
operations conducted by military APTs aimed at gaining access to and extracting
data from various law enforcement units in Ukraine. Their primary objectives were
to identify which evidence of Russian war crimes and exercise control over
potential ground-deployed spies have our law enforcement teams.

Additionally, there were more cyberattacks targeting the private sector with the
intent to leverage cyber capabilities for monitoring the outcomes of their kinetic
operations, including missile
and drone attacks. Furthermore, these attacks were aimed at scrutinizing the
plans of government contractors and supply chain members, as part of Ukraine's
proactive measures for future actions.

ONCE A VICTIM — ALWAYS A VICTIM!

We've uncovered a notable trend where return attempts take precedence.
State-sponsored hackers are revisiting known victims who handle and maintain
the critical data needed by the Russian military. This approach grants attackers
the ability to
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strategize future actions and anticipate our responses. Having prior knowledge of
a victim organization's network infrastructure, defensive measures, key personnel,
and communication patterns provides returning attackers with a substantial
advantage when it comes to exploiting organizations that have been
compromised in the past.

FOCUS ON IMMEDIATE DATA EXFILTRATION

CERT-UA and our partners have optimized the collection of Threat Intelligence
(TI) and reduced the Mean Time to Detect and Respond (MTTD/MTTR).
Consequently, Russian threat actors now have limited time for lateral movement,
prompting them to place even greater emphasis on a particular tactic: dumping
documents, sometimes as many as 21,000 office documents in certain cases,
along with browser credentials. They execute this tactic within the first 30 minutes
of successfully infiltrating a compromised system. Subsequently, they commence
disseminating their malware through various channels, such as email, to other
high-profile targets, taking advantage of established trust relationships.

We've observed a shift in tactics that involve infecting systems, prioritizing

victims, and gaining access to more valuable assets by replacing
compromised Command and Control servers (C2s).
The primary payloads still consist of office documents and HTML/ JS-based
malware packaged in archives, which remain the most prevalent and favored
formats.

THE MEDIA SECTOR IS UNDER CONSTANT ATTACK DURING FIRST SIX

MONTHS OF 2023
Throughout the first six months of 2023, the media sector has been subjected to
persistent attacks. We've been closely monitoring these attacks, which have been
primarily focused on individuals and journalists. The goal behind these attacks is to
gain control over media resources and accounts, intending to employ them for
disinformation campaigns and influence operations. Notably, many of these attacks
have been attributed to the Sandworm group, which is linked to Russia's GRU and
is a key player in the broader context of Russia's hybrid warfare efforts.

https://cert.gov.ua/article/4818341

GROWING ON USAGE “LIVING OFF THE LAND”

Intruders employ either built-in system functionalities or external tools to carry out
malicious actions on the system.
Malicious actors often utilize established, legitimate Windows-based software,
such as WinRar (which is popular in the region), sdelete, and various other
Windows utilities. This approach serves to conceal their abnormal activities,
making it more challenging to detect their actions by antivirus and endpoint
detection and response (AV/EDR) systems. Consequently, they can conduct
destructive operations without triggering anomalies in AV/EDR monitoring.

https://cert.gov.ua/article/4501891

HACKING AND EXPLOITING OPEN-SOURCE MAIL SYSTEMS

We observe a trend from H2'2022 that threat actors actively develop and
distribute exploits against open-source mail systems for known CVEs. Examples:
Zimbra and Roundcube

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THE ENERGY SECTOR CONTINUES TO BE UNDER ATTACK

The key problem that leads to successful penetration is the lack of proper
isolation between Operational technology (OT) and corporate networks.

Amount of attacks in 2023 dropped after the end of the drone and missile attacks
on the civilian energy infrastructure. Still, terrorist-style pressure on the
international community over the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant continued, and key
Russian APT groups were tasked to collect information about Ukrainian plans to
protect the station and preparedness for the worst-case scenario.

TRENDS AND EMERGING

ISSUES H2’2023
This dataset is assembled based on incidents analytics from the CERT-UA
unit, without cases registered by SSSCIP SOC.

123%
+
GROWTH IN THE REGISTERED INCIDENTS RATE IN H’203

342 registered incidents for 6 months in H2’2022 In avg

57 per month, 1-2 per day

762 registered incidents for 6 months in H1’2023

- 81%
In avg 128 per month, 4-5 per day

DECREASE IN THE RATE OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS INH1’2023

144 critical incidents H2’2022

(319 in H1’2022)

27 critical incidents H1’2023

Which we indicate as a great success and outcome of security
hardening and CERT-UA efforts

DECREASE IN THE RATE OF HIGH AND CRITICAL - INCIDENTS 46% INH1'2023

339 high and critical incidents happened in H2’2022

and 683 happened in H1’2022

183 high and critical incidents happened in H1’2023

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DECREASE IN THE RATE OF MALWARE DISTRIBUTION CASES VIA EMAIL

-52%
,41
290 in H2’2022 where malware
was dominating

138 cases in H1’2023 where phishing was dominating

compared to malware distribution attempts

DECREASE IN THE RATE OF ATTACKS

-
AGAINST THE ENERGY 61% SECTOR
AND 50% DROP IN CRITICAL INCIDENTS
CASES
141 incidents in H2’2022
(16 critical incidents with registered impact)

55 incidents in H1’2023
(8 critical incidents with registered impact)

DECREASE IN THE RATE OF CASES WITH IMPACT

30 destructive attempts in H2’2022

518 impactful operations in H2’2022
- 48%
INH1’2023

34 destructive attempts in H1’2023

267 impactful operations in H1’2023

From the data presented above, it's evident that the number of critical incidents
has notably decreased. Moreover, the ratio of high-level to critical-level
incidents has improved. The attackers appear to be using less sophisticated
tactics, employing a "spray and pray" approach, while Ukraine's defense of its
infrastructure has markedly improved compared to six months ago.

Additionally, a new surge in phishing attacks has taken precedence over

successful malware infections. Although the attackers are becoming more
aggressive, Ukraine's defenses are also bolstering. While it's becoming
increasingly challenging for them to have
a substantial impact, they have still managed to achieve some success in
cases involving attempts at wiping data or other destructive operations.
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TIMELINE
The figure below shows the pattern of all threat actors and their ability to conduct
specific amounts of cyber operations over time (distribution by weeks). We
discovered that every APT team is unique and relies on its talent pool, TTPs, and
victimology — so each could perform a limited amount of operations and lateral
movement and maintain access to specific targets (also within a limited timeline
before being discovered).

THREAT ACTORS DISCOVERIES DEMONSTRATE PATTERN THAT THREAT ACTORS

DEPENDING ON TEAM SIZE HAVE CAPACITY TO RUN LIMITED AMOUNT OF NEW
OPERATIONS UAC-0010, UAC-0028, UAC-0102 , UAC-0041, UAC-0082…
February
February

February
February
January
January

January
January
January

March

March

March
March

June

June

June
April
April

April
April

May

May

May
May
May

June
UAC-0028 2 2 1 4 1 3 6 2 2
UAC-0102 2

UAC-0010 1 4 3 4 4 4 8 7 2 1 1 8 6 2 2 3 7 7 10 7 4 3 4
UAC-0041 1 1 1 1 1

UAC-0082 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 1

UAC-0156 1 1

UAC-0024 1 1

UAC-1045 3 1

UAC-0120 1 1

UAC-0107 5 1 1 1

UAC-0114 1

UAC-0100 1 2 2 1 3

UAC-0056 1 1 18 3 1
UAC-0150 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 5 1

UAC-0050 1 12 10 1

UAC-0006 1 11 1 5 1
UAC-0145 1

UAC-1037 1 1 1

UAC-0153 1

UAC-0151 1

UAC-0109 4 26 1 10
UAC-0099 1 1 1

UAC-0166 1

UAC-0117 2

UAC-0165 1 1

UAC-1046 1

UAC-0135 1 1 1

UAC-0096 4

UAC-0160 1

UAC-0064 1

UAC-0162 1

UAC-0063 1

UAC-0035 3

UAC-0036 1

UAC-0106 1

UAC-0155 1

UAC-0143 1

UAC-0148 1

UAC-0097 1

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HERE ARE SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Operation Frequency: An analysis of the intervals between successful
penetrations or initial footholds reveals that most APT groups typically conduct around one operation
per month. However, the capacity to handle a higher number of operations varies among groups,
depending on their size and talent pool. Notably, Gamaredon doubled its performance in H1'2023
despite facing our organizational efforts, enhancements, and countermeasures.

2. Target Switching: When an APT group is discovered, it usually requires some

time to transition to a new target before detection. This pattern is observable in the provided timeline.

3. Opportunistic Approach: The principle of "once a target, always a target"

prevails. There are always plenty of potential targets, and malicious actors often adopt an
opportunistic approach to showcase their impact, maintain a high profile, and emphasize their
capabilities in the cyber landscape.

4. Strategic Targets Limited: Despite numerous targets, the number of strategic and
valuable IT/Cyber targets crucial for supporting Russian military operations in Ukraine is relatively
limited. Attackers, therefore, tend to keep a low profile after being discovered and may reuse their
knowledge of an organization's internals to regain access or find alternative entry points by exploiting
trust and people's behavior (e.g., from emails) and the IT administrator environment. Sometimes, even
password wallets are exploited.

5. Security Measures: To enhance security, critical steps include disabling

executables like mshta.exe, wscript.exe, cscript.exe, and powershell.exe across all organizational
machines unless there is a specific need to whitelist them for particular organizational units.

WHERE & WHY:

TARGETED SECTORS
Based on our analysis of cases, we present the distribution of cases across
various industry segments. The "Other" segment encompasses commercial and
civic organizations that do not fall into the specified categories and has the
highest number of cases (408).

From our findings, it is evident that the following five sectors have consistently
been the primary targets of malicious actors: numerous private companies in the
Media & Telecommunications sector, as well as organizations in the Public and
Local Administration, Security and Defense, and Government Institutions sectors.
Notably, there is a particular emphasis on targeting entities within the Public and
Local Administration subcategory of the Government sector.

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185
Government
125
Public and local
73
Media
55
Energy
47
Security and
institutions administration defense

42
Telecoms / ISPs
19
Logistics /
5
Healthcare / IT
4 408
Others
Transportation Insurance

In the first half of 2023, FSB, GRU, and SVR continued the trend of increasing
espionage operations focused on intelligence gathering. Concurrently, some
groups maintained their penchant for destructive operations. APT groups
frequently revisited their previous targets, capitalizing on their familiarity with the
victims' infrastructure and recognizing the significance of these targets for both
intelligence collection and destructive purposes.

Based on their observed behavior, which includes persistent espionage attempts,

it is reasonable to suggest that their primary mission, as directed by military
commanders, was to ascertain the extent of information gathered by Ukrainian
Law Enforcement units. This information likely includes evidence, intelligence,
and arguments that could be used for criminal proceedings against spies, specific
individuals, institutions, or organizations in Russia, potentially leading to
sanctions or other actions.

It appears that their objective is to acquire data with the intention of gaining
insights into:

• Better situation awareness and cases • List of important witnesses and stakeholders
coming to the court for further war criminal cases
• What information Security Service of • Who was arrested, and how to help these
Ukraine and other law enforcement individuals avoid prosecution and move them
organizations managed to collect as an back to Russia
evidence base for further arrests They utilize this data for counter-
intelligence operations and data
• Plans and evidence Ukrainian law attribution.
enforcement organizations assemble for
international court cases

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• PII and Personalities that become known • Which elite soldiers and officers were
to the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies captured during the siege and could/couldn't be
when officers ask court and prosecutors for exchanged
permission to arrest or interrogate a person

The concept of "once a victim, always a victim" underscores how threat actors
exhibit a persistent pattern of revisiting targets the threat actors have previously
compromised is driven by their ability to leverage the information they've already
acquired and their familiarity with the targeted individuals and email accounts.

By revisiting these previously compromised targets, threat actors aim to exploit

the knowledge they've gained about the organization's internal workings,
personnel, communication channels, and vulnerabilities. They recognize that this
acquired intelligence can provide them with a significant advantage in
orchestrating future cyberattacks. Consequently, they continue to target the
same individuals, email accounts, or even specific departments within the
organization, for the purpose of maintaining access, extracting valuable data,
and furthering their malicious objectives.

This "once a victim, always a victim" strategy underscores the ongoing and
evolving threat that organizations face from cyber adversaries who exploit their
knowledge to maximize the impact of their attacks, highlighting the need for
robust and adaptive cybersecurity measures to counter such persistent threats.

REMARKABLE CASES

Targeting Ukrainian On 17 January 2023, CyberArmyofRussia Reborn released

media agencies data allegedly exfiltrated from Ukrinform, Ukrainian news
agency, in what they purported to be a hack-and-leak
operation.
Hacktivists claimed they had ‘burned’ the victim
organization’s ‘entire network infrastructure’ in an effort
to prevent news from populating the website. CERT-UA
later released a report about a cyberattack with the same
target and timing but concluded that they observed five
strains of wiper malware used in that attack:
CaddyWiper, ZeroWipe, SDelete, AwfulShred, and
idSwipe.
We suggest this cyberattack was carried out by the ‘UAC-
0082 (Sandworm, which is associated with GRU’s Main
Center of Special Technologies.) group.
Primary objective: to compromise Ukraine’s state
information agency and provide ground for better
effectiveness of the Russian-sponsored propaganda.
https://cert.gov.ua/article/4818341
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Hack-and-leak Russian hacker volunteers managed to hack into

against insurance, key insurance companies, and medical/healthcare
medical/healthcare organizations with dumping personally identifiable
organizations information with phone number details, lab analysis
outcomes, COVID test results.
Primary objective: to collect data on Ukrainian citizens,
which will enable the following cyber or information
operations
Attacks against the The Ukrainian energy sector remains a priority target,
energy sector and well known by attackers who kept their presence on
nuclear plant some targets undiscovered for 9 months. There was one
case of disruption operation.
Judging by the registered activity and victimology during
April-May, key APTs were tasked to run a campaign of
intel collection about Ukrainian preparedness and plans
regarding Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).
Suggested primary objective: to support terrorist-type
operations on the threat of a nuclear event at ZNPP.

WHO & HOW:

We recorded claimed attacks by at least 23 Russia-led cyber-terrorist hacking
groups. They all serve an offensive military goal and attack an independent state’s
public and private sectors. We provide an analysis of the activity of the most
dangerous and capable groups: Gamaredon (controlled by FSB), Sandworm
(controlled by GRU), and “independent hacktivists” that turned out to be an
umbrella for state-controlled criminals).

UAC-0010

UAC-0109

UAC-0050

UAC-0056

UAC-0028

UAC-0006

UAC-0150

UAC-0082

UAC-0100

0 25 50 75 100 125

Attributed cases

Figure 1. The most active Threat actors that generated the most cases during H1’2023

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In 2023, the most active groups were UAC-0010 (Gamaredon/FSB), UAC-0056

(GRU), UAC-0028 (APT28/GRU), UAC-0082 (Sandworm/ GRU), UAC-0144 /
UAC-0024 / UAC-0003 (Turla), UAC-0029 (APT29/ SVR), UAC-0109 (Zarya),
UAC-0100, UAC-0106 (XakNet), UAC-
0107 (CyberArmyofRussia). The recorded cyberattacks had been attributed to
these APT groups.
We analyzed the context (timing, objectives, impact), victimology (targeted
sectors, countries), main tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and, when
applicable, attribution based on our internal experience, markers, and
observations.
When we examine the distribution of incidents and threat actors (presented
above) and focus on the most significant and perilous ones (illustrated in the
image below), it becomes evident that the GRU teams identified as UAC-0056
(Ember Bear),
UAC-0028 (APT-28), and UAC-0082 (Sandworm) play a crucial role by
generating 50 serious incidents.
In contrast, the FSB team — UAC-0010 (Gamaredon) — only contributed to 11
critical or high-severity incidents (as presented below) out of a total of 103
incidents associated with their TTPs and observed during the monitoring period
in the scope of organizations contacted or protected by us.

Figure 2.Top 10 Most Active Threat Actors during H1’2023

Based on our analysis it seems like FSB cyber unit Gamaredon managed to
significantly increase the total amount of operations and cases registered by
CERT (from 128 for the full 2022 to 103 just in H1'2023), but not all of them were
that successful and converted into high severity issues.

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When examining the Figure 3 — the prevalence of techniques recorded by

CERT-UA, it becomes apparent that phishing was the most prominent tactic
employed by malicious actors in H1’2023. However, malware infections involving
command-and-control (C2) connections and breaches through known exploitable
vulnerabilities or account compromises stand out as favored and highly effective
strategies across the board.

Malware infection 58
Malicious connection to C2 68
DoS/DDoS 77
Type of incident

Vulnerability exploitation attempt 79

System Compromise 136
Account compromise 194
Vulnerability 204
Malware distribution 306
Phishing 406

0 100 200 300 400

Count
Figure 3. Distribution of incident types registered during H1’2023.

FSB. UAC-0010 Gamaredon

A closer examination of the recorded incidents, as outlined in the general Threat
Actors Analytics above, reveals that
UAC-0010 exhibited a notable performance increase. The number of registered
cases for this group rose from 76 cases in H2’2022 to 103 cases in H1’2023. This
substantial growth in the volume of cyber operations, accompanied by shifts in
focus and tactics compared to previous periods, can be attributed to several
factors. These include an expansion in manpower and team capacity, the infusion
of new talent from Russia's abundant pool of skilled individuals, and the
mobilization of IT professionals from the private sector to serve in the military.

In H1'2023 UAC-0010 demonstrated explicit interest in all the law enforcement

directions (54.1% of their cases), also expressing persistent interest in all
organizations related to Ukrainian Defense Forces. This group has a huge human
resource and applies primitive methods that nonetheless are quite resultative.

Analysis of UAC-0010 team activity by timeline and a number of showcasing that

their increased number of incidents (comparing to H1 and even more to H2’2022)
and regularity of discoveries in different Ukrainian organizations/networks is
achieved through adding more man-power, new talents to support their operations.
We suggest that old operators return to well-known targets while newcomers are
working to penetrate new victims (access brokers). They experience trouble
persisting and maintaining access because of Ukrainian cyber defenders activities,
so they have to accelerate with getting in and out, and not burn the victims where
they successfully maintain access.

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Local govermants
5.4%
Other Ministries
5.4%

Diplomacy sector
13.5%

Low
enforcement
54.1%

Defense Sector
21.6%

Figure 4. UAC-0010 Victimology by sectors in H1’2023.

The figure below presents an analysis of methods registered across SOC and
CERT cases used by UAC-0010 during its campaigns. Malware distribution is the
dominating tactic for this group, while other groups heavily rely on phishing
campaigns.

Account System Compromise

compromise
4.0%
3.0%
Malware infection
3.0%

Malicious
connection

29.7%

Malware
distribution
54.5%

Command & Control (C2)

5.0%

Figure 5. UAC-0010/FSB methods/vectors exploited during H1’2023

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UAC-0010

h h h h l l l l y y y y y n

FebruaryFebruaryFebruaryFebruary

JanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuaryJanuary Marc Marc Marc Marc Apri Apri Apri Apri Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma June June June June

organizatio

Targeted

Date

Figure 6 illustrates the UAC -0010/Gamaredon campaigns and activities throughout H1’2023, providing a visual representation of the time
intervals in weeks between the discovery of this threat actor on various victims. This representation effectively portrays the velocity and
speed at which their team penetrates both new and previously targeted entities.

Still, to have a more precise picture of truly dangerous intrusions being

discovered, we build the following analytics which confirms our guess that for
more serious operations, threat actors require more time to run a campaign and
get a foothold. In a range, as we see, it is 20-30 days for one initial access
operation or return attempt.

To enhance the effect of their hacking campaigns even more, starting from April
2023, hackers are using tactics of compromising news agencies and Facebook
pages where they publish provocative and controversial information, blaming
CERT-UA for the breach and losing competition.

During the war, there takes place an obvious "merging" between criminal hacker
groups and the aggressor state. There are numerous cases of using a toolset of
Trickbot/Conti hacker groups for performing attacks toward objects of critical
infrastructure, in particular energy infrastructure. Another example is the activity of
the Tropical Scorpius group utilizing a RomCom backdoor during their attacks.

GRU. Sandworm UAC-0082/UAC-0165

The media is a target for military hackers from the Main Intelligence Directorate of
the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, despite being a civilian target.
From the perspective of the Russian command, it is critical for military and
informational operations, so the media will continue to be the focus of all Russian
hackers in uniform. Since this hybrid warfare is characterized by the use of
hacking tools for influence operations, it is a hallmark of the Russian Federation.
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This marks a continuation of the Russian approach aimed at impacting civilian

infrastructure outside of traditional battlegrounds. This approach involves the use
of aggressive propaganda as well as missile and drone strikes targeting crucial
energy and agriculture export facilities. This strategic outlook is mirrored in the
objectives assigned to military hackers, as a significant portion of their
cyberattacks is directed at essential civilian services such as media,
communication networks, and the public sector.

Others

Local municipalities
6.7%
Govermant

Private businesses
13.3%
Energy sector
33.3%
Telco & ISP

Media

13.3%

13.3%
13.3%
6.7%

Figure 7. UAC-0082/GRU victimology by segment

They also actively hunt after military personnel who have access to some military
platforms

New OpSec Trend

A vast majority of destructive attacks have been performed by the
Sandworm group managed by GRU.
In order to make these events public, such attacks have been
followed by leaks of documents, schemas, and technical
documentation in Telegram channels de-facto controlled by the
group mimicking “independent volunteers”.

Previously, the Sandworm group used @CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn

Telegram channel to publish the results of their activity.

However, starting from the 25th of April 2023, they are using a
@solntsepekZ Telegram channel instead for better OpSec.

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The most related story — https://cert.gov.ua/article/3718487

Since the full-scale invasion, in most Sandworm incidents, the final intention of this
APT is to carry out destructive cyberattacks, which involve wiping servers, crashing
virtualization systems, disabling active network equipment, wiping data storage
systems, and encrypting endpoints. During the last 6 months, they developed new
variants of malicious software (there are more than 10 new samples) using
legitimate utilities (like SDelete, WinRaR) or built-in features of systems (for
example NAS storages).

Energy sector. In some cases, timely revealed hackers’ intentions to perform

cyber attacks on energy facilities prove the fact of using specific tactics of multi-
phase influence: power outage, destruction of substations control, destruction of
underlayer telecommunication substation (modems), smashing employees
workstation, and wiping server equipment.

The complexity of attacks against the energy sector was significantly raised, as
they knew these networks and companies (since 2014) are built similarly and have
the same weak spots or defense best practices, which allowed them to better
prepare the operations.

Story
In one of the investigations on one of the energy objects, we managed
to collect evidence of initial access to that network dated by mid-2021,
which links to a part of a broader campaign of similar cases. This
indicates the planning of intrusion, and proactive cyber operations,
including hacker groups involvement in conventional m

ilitary operations with the aim of enhancing their effect and performing
a negative influence on industrial control systems, etc.

The plan of that influence operation utilized dependencies on electricity

of the telecom, transportation, banking, and other organizations from the
critical infrastructure list.
Malicious actors were utilizing gained accesses depending on situation
development in conventional operations.

“Hacktivists”
Killnet, HackNet, Zarya, NoName057, Anonymous Russia

We recorded the most attacks from Killnet, NoName057(16), XakNet Team,

Anonymous Russia, and Cyber Army of Russia.
• These hacking groups actually collaborate. They targeted the same or similar
targets and reposted each other’s content on social media.

• Although their claims rarely describe the nature of the supposed cyberattack.

During H1’2023, we noticed a rise in information operations with a cyber

component. This category ranged from coordinated inauthentic behavior on
social media pushing narratives associated
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with Russia’s war on Ukraine to hack-and-leaks from supposed hacktivists

who attempted to cause reputational damage to the victims.

Threat actors published supposedly exfiltrated data (including hack-and-leak) for

various reasons:
→ to prove a claimed targeted intrusion
→ to inflict reputational damage on the victim
→ to influence public opinion or as a sample of a larger dataset up for sale

New Trend
Also, they are now combining hack-and-leak with publishing
fake news through compromised media resources to reach a
wider audience.
Relevant cases:
https://cip.gov.ua/ua/news/kiberataka-na-derzhstat-ukrayini-vorog-
ukotre-prozvituvav-pro-peremogu-yakoyi-ne-bulo

https://cip.gov.ua/ua/news/rosiiski-khakeri-namagayutsya-diskredituvati-
uryadovu-komandu-reaguvannya-na-komp-yuterni-nadzvichaini-podiyi-
cert-ua

References
We recommend checking the following materials:
1. https://cert.gov.ua/article/5213167
2. https://cert.gov.ua/article/5160737
3. https://cert.gov.ua/article/4905829
4. https://cert.gov.ua/article/4905718
5. https://cip.gov.ua/ua/news/cert-ua-zavdyaki-spivpraci-z-recorded-future-viyaviv-
shpigunsku-kampaniyu-grupi-apt28-bluedelta-proti-ukrayinskikh-organizacii
6. https://cert.gov.ua/article/3947787

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Our expectations and forecasts, considering the existing context,

observations, and lessons learned.

GROWTH OF A EVEN BIGGER SHIFT TO

SOPHISTICATED SUPPLY ESPIONAGE
CHAIN
We anticipate a deceleration in lateral
We expect that companies developing movement within the network and a shift
software for critical infrastructure and the towards greater user impersonation.
military would be actively targeted in a Malicious actors are becoming increasingly
long-term perspective. IT managers have cautious about avoiding detection,
to carefully watch every commit and prompting them to refrain from deploying
protect their Intellectual property custom malware that could raise alarms.
software by obfuscation and advanced Instead, they are leaning towards utilizing
authentication. legitimate tools and processes, blending
into the environment more effectively to
avoid drawing attention to their activities.

MORE COMPLEX OF MORE PEOPLE IN RUSSIAN

ATTACKS AND TOOLSET CYBER CRIMINAL AND
Our forecast indicates that threat actors are MILITARY
intensifying the complexity of their attack We are already observing the rise of
chains. They are leveraging advanced successful operations and distribution
techniques to create more intricate attack campaigns. Russia actively engages young
scenarios. This includes the development people sharing Western materials to train
and deployment of highly sophisticated and educate them, preparing a new
malware that boasts a wider distribution, generation of patriotically motivated hackers
capable of targeting various operating who could easily become cyber-criminal
systems and even exhibiting cross-platform threat actors/ransomware operators in the
capabilities. This escalation in attack future.
sophistication highlights the need for
organizations

to continually enhance their

cybersecurity defenses to stay
ahead of evolving threats.

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Prepared with the support of the European Union and the USAID Cybersecurity for Critical
Infrastructure in Ukraine Activity

This publication is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and the support of the European Union.
The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the
U.S. Government or the EU.

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