Belarusian hackers, suspects in hit of European officials

Experts suspect Belarusian hackers for launching a malicious software attack, targeting European officials. Thus, experts say that attackers try to disrupt their efforts to aid Ukrainian refugees.

The attack, similar to other Belarusian hackers’ campaigns

According to Proofpoint, the attack was anecdotally similar to the Ghostwriters’ campaigns. They are a group previously identified for working in Belarus’ interest.

So, Proofpoint identified the “likely nation state sponsored phishing campaign.” It also explained that hackers were using a “possibly compromised Ukrainian armed service service members’ email account.”

Thus, they used the compromised account “to target European government personnel.” Not only that, but their main targets were those “officials managing the logistics of refugees fleeing Ukraine.”

Still, Belarus’ embassy in London denied any implication of its government in such attacks.

Ukrainian officials accused Belarus

The attack comes as a huge number of people try to flee from the combat zone. Ukrainian officials also accused Belarusian hackers for targeting private email addresses of Ukraine military personnel.

Thus, Proofpoint experts believe that the new attack targeting European officials might be the next stage of the war.

Also, they presume that this might be an attempt to ”gain intelligence regarding the logistics”. So, this could apply to movement of funds and people in the NATO countries.

Now, researchers say that the techniques that hackers used can be “quite effective.” But this happens although they “are not ground-braking individually.” Still, when they are used collectively and at certain times, they can be extremely dangerous.

According to the United Nations, about 700,000 people fled from Ukraine since the start of the war. Also, they even mentioned that this seems to be the larges refugee crisis in Europe, this century.

Ukrainian hackers react

But the attacks did not remain without reply from the Ukrainian hackers’ “IT army”. So, the volunteer hackers said they would target Belarusian railway network. Also, they mentioned that Russia’s GLONASS navigation system would become a target.