In early 2022, Mandiant predicted that Russian cyber threat activity associated with the invasion of Ukraine would affect government and private sector targets in third-party countries, particularly neighboring countries, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, and other nations voicing support for Ukraine. Russian government-linked actors have historically employed false hacktivist facades as a means of obscuring their role in targeting Western countries.
Mandiant has previously identified instances of self-proclaimed hacktivist groups coordinating with such actors in the context of the war. While Mandiant researchers have not observed direct ties between KillNet and the Russian government, they cannot exclude the possibility of coordination, or more substantial ties, between some or all groups comprising the collective.
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Source: Mandiant