Russia's pre-war priority was to gather information about Ukrainian patriots. The idea was to kill or imprison these people in the early stages of the occupation, - Viktor Zhora, the deputy head of State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine told the Associated Press. Data collection on Ukrainians accelerated before the full-scale russian invasion, in addition the hackers collaborating with the russian armed forces often targeted specific Ukrainians.
Personal data of Ukrainian citizens still remains a priority for russian hackers, as they continue to try to break into government networks, said Serhiy Demedyuk, the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
"Cyberwar is really hot right now," he said.
Demedyuk added that russian cyberattacks in early January and February during the invasion were primarily aimed at "destroying the information systems of public institutions and critical infrastructure."
According to Viktor Zhora and Proofpoint company, after the start of the full-scale aggression, hackers attacked European organizations that provide assistance to refugees from Ukraine.
Then a call center was attacked, which is used by hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and operates hotlines for complaints on a wide range of issues: corruption, domestic violence, internally displaced people, payments to veterans. The personal data of Ukrainians was not stolen during the attack.
A hacker attack on Ukrtelecom took place on March 28. The hackers used a compromised employee account to explore and tried to compromise other employee accounts.
The second stage was a cyber attack on the same day, during which hackers tried to disable the company's equipment and services, as well as gain control over Ukrtelecom's network and equipment. Attempts were made to change passwords for the employees accounts, equipment, firewalls.