Ukraine’s recently formed “IT army” is playing a crucial role in the war with Russia, launching disruptive cyber-attacks and data thefts against the Russian government and other high-profile targets such as energy giant Gazprom.
The IT army has thousands of volunteer members around the world, who use Twitter and Telegram channels to communicate, coordinate and report on actions. Its members have already taken part in a wide variety of attacks. These range from stealing and exposing important information to successfully disrupting Russian communications and other critical networks in order to hinder the Russian war efforts.
The formation of the IT army was a Ukrainian government response to concerns about the role Russian cyber-attacks might have on the war. On February 26 2022 Ukrainian vice-prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov issued a call to arms to all hackers willing to join its IT army and support Ukraine against Russian cyber-attacks and to disrupt Russian networks.
