Ukrainian media outlets now among 'priority targets' for Russian hackers

Russia-linked hackers are increasingly targeting Ukrainian media organizations, local officials warned, as news outlets continue to face pressure not only from cyber operations but also Russia's ongoing military attacks.

Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, said media organizations have become "one of the priority targets" for Russian hackers. Previous attacks have primarily sought to disrupt broadcasts, spread propaganda and undermine public trust.

Volodymyr Karastelyov, head of the SBU's cyber department, disclosed details of two previously unreported cyberattacks targeting Ukrainian television broadcasters. He did not attribute the incidents to specific Russian entities.

Earlier this year, Russian hackers launched a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against an unnamed nationwide television channel in an attempt to disrupt its operations.

The three-hour attack generated up to 200,000 requests per minute from a botnet of compromised devices. The attack was repelled before it could achieve its objective, Karastelyov said.

In another incident last year, Russian hackers targeted one of Ukraine's leading television groups in an attempt to seize control of its platform and publish propaganda disguised as content from a Ukrainian media outlet.

According to Karastelyov, the attackers launched a phishing campaign against the broadcaster's information systems while simultaneously attempting to gain access through connected infrastructure. The attack was also contained, he said.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, the SBU said it has "neutralized" more than 16,000 cyberattacks and cyber incidents targeting Ukrainian government agencies, financial institutions, defense organizations and media outlets.

Ukraine's State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) said in a report last year that Russian hackers had carried out more than 200 successful cyberattacks against Ukrainian media organizations since the start of the invasion.

The agency said the attackers employed a range of tactics, including phishing campaigns, DDoS attacks, website defacements, destructive malware and the unauthorized publication of disinformation on compromised media platforms.

In addition to cyberattacks, Ukrainian media organizations have also sustained repeated physical damage from Russian missile and drone strikes.

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine documented 80 incidents in the first half of this year in which Russian attacks damaged media infrastructure or affected journalists carrying out their work. The cases include destroyed or damaged editorial offices, damaged broadcasting infrastructure and journalists coming under Russian fire while reporting.

The latest incident occurred this week, when the office of Ukraine's Channel 5 was damaged for the second time during the war. A strike on Monday damaged the television studio, destroyed part of the station's filming equipment and heavily damaged the newsroom, as Russia launched 68 missiles and nearly 400 drones at Ukraine overnight.