Ukrainian law enforcement authorities had neutralized a hacking group that had stolen accounts of about 30 million individuals.
The cyber department of Ukraine ‘s Security Service (SSU) had taken down the group believed to be behind the theft which was operating from the city of Lviv and acted on behalf of Russian interests.
The 30 million accounts belonged to citizens from Ukraine and the European Union which were put up for sale on the dark web and earned a profit of $372,000 (14 million UAH) through electronic payment systems like YooMoney, Qiwi, and WebMoney that are outlawed in the country.
Their main clients were pro-kremlin propagandists who used the received identification data of Ukrainian and foreign citizens to spread fake ‘news’ from the front and sow panic.
The main aim of the campaign was “large-scale destabilization in multiple countries,” and the hacked accounts were used to propagate false information about the socio-political situation in Ukraine and the E.U.
After conducting search at the suspects’ homes, magnetic disks containing personal data as well as computer equipment, mobile phones, SIM cards, and flash drives that exhibited evidence of illicit activities were found.
The development comes weeks after the agency moved to shut down two bot farms comprising nearly 7,000 accounts that were orchestrated to spread information designed to destabilize the social and political situation in Ukraine.
Image Credits : Bleeping Computer
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