Rebecca Rommen
- The Ukrainian hacking group "Blackjack" successfully targeted Russian military sites and mined data.
- The data includes intel on Russian military bases, air-defense installations, and weapons arsenals.
- Operatives mined data from more than 500 Russian military sites, Ukrainian intelligence said.
"Blackjack," a Ukrainian group of hackers with possible ties to the country's main spy agency, stole construction plans for over 500 Russian military sites, Newsweek reported.
The cyber operatives are believed to have links to the Security Service of Ukraine.
Ukraine's military-intelligence agency, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, or GUR, confirmed the successful operation on Friday.
"Blackjack blew the jackpot," GUR shared in Ukrainian on Telegram.
GUR said a successful cyberattack had been launched against a Russian state enterprise overseeing all construction contracts for Russia's Ministry of Defence.
They wrote that operatives had transferred critical information about Russian military facilities that have already been completed, constructed, reconstructed, or planned for construction to the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine.
The Blackjack group amassed 1.2 terabytes of classified data on Vladimir Putin's military apparatus.
The data includes detailed maps of more than 500 Russian military bases across Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.
The mined information includes crucial data about Russian Army headquarters, air-defense installations, and weapons arsenals.
The Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne said the group also took down seven servers and encrypted over 150 of the Russian contractor's employee computers.
"Effectively, the Russian construction specialists were left without any data or backup copies of information," Suspilne said, Euromaidan Press reported.
GUR wrote on Telegram that operatives deleted all the specified data from the Russian company's servers as part of the cyber operation, which temporarily paralyzed the construction of new Russian facilities.
"We express our gratitude to the members of the powerful Blackjack cyber community, who again deftly beat the Russians and significantly strengthened Ukraine's defense capabilities," GUR wrote in Ukrainian.
The Telegram post concluded with, "Glory to Ukraine!"
Cyber warfare has played a key role in Russia's war on Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Business Insider reporter Sinéad Baker wrote that Russia had hacked Kyiv surveillance cameras to zero in on targets for its devastating coordinated-missile attack.
Both armies are taking advantage of cyberspace in their military strategy. Last month, Ukrainian marines hacked a Russian drone's video feed to track it and subsequently shell it.
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