Russian hackers allegedly target Ukraine's biggest private energy firm
Russian hackers carried out a cyberattack on Ukraine’s biggest private energy conglomerate in retaliation for its owner’s opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the firm said Friday, News.az reports citing UNIAN.
DTEK Group, which owns coal and thermal power plants in various parts of Ukraine, said the goal of the hack was to “destabilize the technological processes” of its distribution and generation firms, spread propaganda about the company’s operations, and “to leave Ukrainian consumers without electricity.”
The actual impact of the hack, and what computer systems were breached, is unclear. There have been no reports of outages caused by the incident. DTEK did not respond to requests for comment.
The hacking incident was disclosed days after Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and DTEK’s owner, sued Russia at the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly costing Akhmetov billions of dollars in property rights damages.
A Russian-speaking hacking group known as XakNet claimed to have breached DTEK’s networks this week and posted screenshots of purported DTEK data as proof. The hacking group surfaced in March, according to a US and allied government advisory, and has claimed to target Ukrainian officials in support of Russia’s war.