REUTERS
- Ukrainian hacking group "Blackjack" successfully targeted Russian military sites.
- The mined data includes intel on Russian Army HQs, air defense installations, and weapons arsenals.
- Over 500 Russian military sites had their data breached, said Ukraine intelligence.
"Blackjack," a Ukrainian group of hackers with alleged ties to the country's main spy agency, stole construction plans for over 500 Russian military sites, Newsweek reports.
The cyber operatives are believed to have links to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Ukraine's military intelligence agency confirmed the successful operation, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR), on Friday.
"Blackjack blew the jackpot," the GUR shared in Ukrainian on Telegram.
The GUR said a successful cyber attack had been launched against a Russian state enterprise overseeing all construction contracts for Russia's Ministry of Defence.
They wrote that critical information about Russian military facilities that have already been completed, constructed, reconstructed, or planned for construction had been transferred to the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine.
Blackjack amassed an astonishing 1.2 terabytes of classified data on Vladimir Putin's military apparatus.
The harvested data includes detailed maps of more than 500 Russian military bases across Russian and Russian-occupied Ukraine territories.
The mined information includes crucial information about Russian Army headquarters, airdefense installations, and weapons arsenals.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne said the group also took down seven servers and encrypted over 150 employee computers of the Russian contractor.
"Effectively, the Russian construction specialists were left without any data or backup copies of information," Suspilne reported, per Euromaidan Press.
The GUR wrote on Telegram that as part of the cyber operation, all the specified data was deleted from the servers of the Russian company, which temporarily paralyzed the construction of new facilities for Moscow.
"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, 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.