Russian threat actors are targeting computer networks of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies in search of evidence related to war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, said Yurii Shchyhol, head of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP).
“There has been a change in direction from a focus on energy facilities to law enforcement agencies, which previously were not targeted as much,” Yurii Shchyhol told Reuters in an interview.
“This shift toward courts, prosecutors and law enforcement shows that hackers are gathering evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine” to pursue Ukraine’s investigations, he added.
The Russian hackers associated with the Russian intelligence services GRU and FSB are also trying to obtain information about Russian nationals arrested in Ukraine to “help these individuals evade prosecution and return them to Russia.”
Ukraine’s cyber chief did not disclose entities impacted, only saying that threat actors targeted mostly government agencies and tried to gain access to their email servers.
According to the head of the SSSCIP, the number of security incidents documented by the agency increased by 123% in the first six months of 2023 compared to the second half of 2022.
Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was hit with a cyberattack affecting its information systems. The ICC didn’t reveal the nature of the incident or whether any data had been stolen. Currently, it’s unclear who was behind the hack.
In March 2023, the court issued arrest warrants for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova, both accused of the war crime of unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.