Russia Creates Malware False-Flag App
The Russian hacking group Turla released an Android app that seems to aid Ukrainian hackers in their attacks against Russian networks. It’s actually malware, and provides information back to the Russians:
The hackers pretended to be a “community of free people around the world who are fighting russia’s aggression”—much like the IT Army. But the app they developed was actually malware. The hackers called it CyberAzov, in reference to the Azov Regiment or Battalion, a far-right group that has become part of Ukraine’s national guard. To add more credibility to the ruse they hosted the app on a domain “spoofing” the Azov Regiment: cyberazov[.]com.
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The app actually didn’t DDoS anything, but was designed to map out and figure out who would want to use such an app to attack Russian websites, according to Huntely.
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Google said the fake app wasn’t hosted on the Play Store, and that the number of installs “was miniscule.”
Details from Google’s Threat Analysis Group here.
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Ted • July 20, 2022 1:57 PM
What a sputter into attrition.
I can’t imagine what info the IT Army has found in the meantime. Will we get to a stage where Russia’s internal machinations are aired in the international community?
In his book Freezing Order Bill Browder details his work in Russia with forensic financial investigators. Now, there will be more reason than ever for the aggrieved to expose the inner workings of an authoritarian kleptocracy.
This regime’s war in Ukraine seems a cruel press into further exposure, condemnation, and reckoning.