SBU busts “bot farm” network supported via Russian online services

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Photo/SBU

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) blocked bot farm network, which spread its activities across several oblasts of Ukraine. The equipment of bot farm was supported through Russian online services.

The telecommunication platforms were used to create and promote fake accounts and communities for conducting illegal operations using the Internet.

“The group registered more than 8,000 fake accounts for spreading false information about the situation in Ukraine on popular social networks, inciting protests, intimidating the population, sending mining reports and carrying out cyber attacks on Ukrainian officials’ accounts,” SBU noted.

They also distributed firearms, explosive devices, and drugs through accounts.

Accounts were registered through Russian online services that provided virtual mobile numbers.

“Some of the equipment was used by cybercriminals to illegally smuggle the telephone traffic of the illegally created “operators” Phoenix and LuhaKyi, which operate in temporarily occupied territories, to the network of domestic operators,” the SBU emphasized.

These “services” were used by the “leaders” of the illegal armed groups of the so-called “LPR” and “DPR”. During searches in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Dubno (Rivne Oblast) and Irpen (Kyiv Oblast), were found and seized computer equipment and special equipment (GSM modems, gateways), more than 22,000 SIM cards of Ukrainian mobile cellular operators, as well as draft notes on the registration of users of social networks that posted provocative comments under the publications of Ukrainian political figures.

The version of involvement in the organization of the specified illegal activity of special and intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation is currently being checked.

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