Russian authorities claim Ukraine hackers are behind fake missile strike alerts
(2023/02/23)
- Reference: 1677133811
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/02/23/russia_fake_missile_alerts/
- Source link:
Millions of Russians in almost a dozen cities throughout the country were greeted Wednesday morning by radio alerts, text messages, and sirens warning of an air raid or missile strikes that never occurred. The warnings were later blamed on hackers.
According to reports from news operations in Russia, a woman's voice was [1]broadcast through a number of radio stations – including Relax FM, Avatoradio, Yumor FM, and Comedy Radio – saying, "Attention, an air raid warning is being announced. Go to the shelter immediately. Attention, Attention, threat of a missile strike."
The broadcasts were played in at least 10 cities – Pyatigorsk, Tyumen, Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Magnitogorsk, Stary Oskol, Ufa, and Novouralsk.
[2]
Local officials in some of the cities, including in the Belgorod and Kurgan regions, quickly announced that the alerts were fake and the country's Ministry of Emergency Situations later accused unidentified miscreants of initiating the broadcasts.
[3]
[4]
"As a result of a hacker attack on the servers of some commercial radio stations in some regions of the country, information was broadcast about an alleged announcement of an air raid warning and a threat of a missile strike," the Ministry said in a statement, according to [5]RIA Novosti , the Russian state-owned news agency.
The Ministry said the broadcasts and text messages were the result of an attack on a a satellite operator's infrastructure and that "an unauthorized tie-in is going on the air. The alarm signals transmitted on the air do not correspond [to] reality."
[6]
Citizens were told to "follow the messages in official sources" and that technical specialists were working on the situation, according to the RIA Novosti report.
Many of the stations that aired the broadcasts are owned by Gazprom-Media, the largest media company in Russia.
[7]'Russian hacktivists' brag of flooding German airport sites
[8]US sanctions fail to stop Russia connecting with Cisco hardware
[9]SpaceX cuts off Ukraine's 'offensive' Starlink use
[10]Gee, tanks: Russian hackers DDoS Germany for aiding Ukraine
The fake alerts were broadcast two days before the one-year anniversary of Russia's unprovoked and illegal attack on neighboring Ukraine, a "special military operation" the country's political and military leaders said at the beginning would be wrapped up in a matter of weeks.
In Voronezh, one of the cities hit by the alerts and where regional authorities accused "collaborators of the Kyiv regime" of hacking into the radio stations, according to a report in the Russian independent news site [11]Meduza .
The Russian accusations of hacking come more than a year of [12]reports of Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine government agencies and private corporations in the weeks leading up to the invasion and in the 12 months following it. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X67HYohbYQ
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://ria.ru/20230222/radio-1853668209.html
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/17/german_airport_websites_ddos/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/15/grey_market_sellers_defeat_sanctions/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/spacex_starlink_ukraine_offensive/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/30/russian_hackers_ddos_germany/
[11] https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/02/22/authorities-blame-hackers-after-air-raid-sirens-sound-over-radio-in-multiple-russian-cities
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/24/ukraine_nato_cyber_defense/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
According to reports from news operations in Russia, a woman's voice was [1]broadcast through a number of radio stations – including Relax FM, Avatoradio, Yumor FM, and Comedy Radio – saying, "Attention, an air raid warning is being announced. Go to the shelter immediately. Attention, Attention, threat of a missile strike."
The broadcasts were played in at least 10 cities – Pyatigorsk, Tyumen, Voronezh, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Magnitogorsk, Stary Oskol, Ufa, and Novouralsk.
[2]
Local officials in some of the cities, including in the Belgorod and Kurgan regions, quickly announced that the alerts were fake and the country's Ministry of Emergency Situations later accused unidentified miscreants of initiating the broadcasts.
[3]
[4]
"As a result of a hacker attack on the servers of some commercial radio stations in some regions of the country, information was broadcast about an alleged announcement of an air raid warning and a threat of a missile strike," the Ministry said in a statement, according to [5]RIA Novosti , the Russian state-owned news agency.
The Ministry said the broadcasts and text messages were the result of an attack on a a satellite operator's infrastructure and that "an unauthorized tie-in is going on the air. The alarm signals transmitted on the air do not correspond [to] reality."
[6]
Citizens were told to "follow the messages in official sources" and that technical specialists were working on the situation, according to the RIA Novosti report.
Many of the stations that aired the broadcasts are owned by Gazprom-Media, the largest media company in Russia.
[7]'Russian hacktivists' brag of flooding German airport sites
[8]US sanctions fail to stop Russia connecting with Cisco hardware
[9]SpaceX cuts off Ukraine's 'offensive' Starlink use
[10]Gee, tanks: Russian hackers DDoS Germany for aiding Ukraine
The fake alerts were broadcast two days before the one-year anniversary of Russia's unprovoked and illegal attack on neighboring Ukraine, a "special military operation" the country's political and military leaders said at the beginning would be wrapped up in a matter of weeks.
In Voronezh, one of the cities hit by the alerts and where regional authorities accused "collaborators of the Kyiv regime" of hacking into the radio stations, according to a report in the Russian independent news site [11]Meduza .
The Russian accusations of hacking come more than a year of [12]reports of Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine government agencies and private corporations in the weeks leading up to the invasion and in the 12 months following it. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X67HYohbYQ
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://ria.ru/20230222/radio-1853668209.html
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-dHTtps8TAMJir8Olu84AAAAFU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/17/german_airport_websites_ddos/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/15/grey_market_sellers_defeat_sanctions/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/spacex_starlink_ukraine_offensive/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/30/russian_hackers_ddos_germany/
[11] https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/02/22/authorities-blame-hackers-after-air-raid-sirens-sound-over-radio-in-multiple-russian-cities
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/24/ukraine_nato_cyber_defense/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Charlie Clark
To that you can add that the Russian population has been under attack from its government for years.
How does it go...
Will Godfrey
If you can't take it, don't dish it out.
We need a ROTFL icon!
"the country's Ministry of Emergency Situations"
Pascal Monett
I would have thought that the Ministry of Interior would be tasked with handling emergency situations of this kind, or the Ministry of Defense at the very least.
Does Russia also have a Ministry of Silly Walks ?
Re: "the country's Ministry of Emergency Situations"
Tubz
Yeh but only Putin turns up.
Killfalcon
Hackers, or someone pressing the wrong button and blaming hackers?
I eagerly await finding out if this belongs in ON-CALL or WHO-ME?
Probably one good reason for the UK not to have such a system.
JimmyPage
Occasionally government incompetence and lack of care for it's citizens can be an advantage.
In fact if I heard something that suggested Sunak and co. gave a shiny shit about me, I would know it was a hoax.
Jonathon Green
My money’s on a state sanctioned “false flag” operation to stir up discomfort, ramp up the paranoia, and facilitate the othering (and subsequent suppression) of more internal dissenters…
"The alarm signals transmitted on the air do not correspond [to] reality."
Maybe they were talking about RT here? It's hard to tell.