She confirmed that a contact list the hackers
posted online of more than 300 center
employees was genuine as well as a spreadsheet
with employee passwords. But she said other
files the hackers posted — listing 3 million
names and phone numbers and 1 million
addresses — were not from the center.
Spear-phishing attacks in recent weeks
have focused on military, national and local
officials, aimed at stealing credentials to open
government data troves. Such activity relies
heavily on Ukraine’s cellular networks, which
Meyers of CrowdStrike said have been far too rich
in intelligence for Russia to want to shut down.
On March 31, Ukraine’s SBU intelligence
agency said it had seized a “bot farm” in the
eastern region of Dnipropretrovsk that was
controlled remotely from Russia and sent text
messages to 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers, police
and SBU members urging them to surrender or
sabotage their units. Agency spokesman Artem
Dekhtiarenko said authorities were investigating
how the phone numbers were obtained.
Gene Yoo, CEO of the cybersecurity firm
ReSecurity, said it likely was not difficult:
Subscriber databases of major Ukrainian
wireless companies have been available for sale
by cybercriminals on the dark web for some
time — as they are for many countries.
If Russia is successful at taking control of more
of eastern Ukraine, stolen personal data will
be an asset. Russian occupiers have already
collected passport information, a top Ukrainian
presidential adviser tweeted recently, that could
help organize separatist referendums.