Hacktivism and geopolitically motivated APT groups have become a significant threat to many regions of the world in recent years, damaging infrastructure and important functions of government, business, and society.
In late 2022 Kaspersky predicted that the involvement of hacktivist groups in all major geopolitical conflicts from now on will only increase and this is what we’ve been observing throughout the years. With regard to the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, this has led to a sharp increase of activities carried out by groups that identify themselves as either pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian. The rise in cybercrime amid geopolitical tensions is alarming. Kaspersky Cyber Threat Intelligence team has been observing several geopolitically motivated threat actors and hacktivist groups operating in various conflict zones.
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Source: Kaspersky
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