Ukrainian Intelligence Hacks Russian Defense Ministry

Cyber specialists from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) reported that they’d hacked Russian servers and can now establish the “complete structure” of Russia’s defense ministry.

“The analysis of the obtained data also helped to identify the generals, other high-ranking managers of the structural units of the Ministry of Defense, as well as deputies, assistants, specialists – all those who used software for electronic document management called ‘bureaucrats,’” the HUR wrote in a Telegram post on Monday (Feb. 4).

The hack has given Kyiv access to various secret documents, including those of Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, the HUR says.

Without disclosing further details and using a handshake emoji, the HUR, thanked Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu: “ This deputy shoigu played an important role in the success of the cyber attack.”

Ukrainian intelligence reported that it gained access to various orders, reports, instructions, and other documents that circulated among more than 2,000 structural units in Russia’s defense ministry.

“The work in Russian cyberspace aimed at obstructing and paralyzing the activities of law enforcement agencies and officials of the aggressor state responsible for the war against the Ukrainian people continues. To be continued!” the HUR added.

On Feb. 8, Ukraine’s cyber specialists said they’d conducted a special operation that caused massive failures in Russia’s drone control program.

Russia knew about the Ukrainian army’s plans for a counteroffensive last fall before the offensive began. Budanov, the head of military intelligence, called the leak a “serious problem.”

And on Jan. 30, the НUR said it attacked the Russian Ministry of Defense’s communications server.