Ukrainian Hackers Launch Cyberattacks on Moscow Sewage System

Blackjack, a Ukrainian hacker group affiliated with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said it had launched a cyberattack on Moskollector, a company that operates the communication system for Moscow’s sewage network.

Unnamed government sources told Ukrainian news outlet LIGA.net that Blackjack managed to shut off 87,000 alarm sensors throughout Moscow and the surrounding suburbs, preventing the company from responding to emergency events. The source also claimed that Blackjack destroyed 70 servers and at least 90 terabytes of company data, including emails, backup copies and contracts.

“Now the operation of the object of critical infrastructure of Moscow is completely blocked, the company cannot respond to accidents and emergency events. It will take 15 to 30 days to restore its functioning,” the source told LIGA.net.

“We wish Moscow various man-made disasters these days,” the source added.

While initial reports attached a screenshot of the hacked main page, Moskollector’s website appears to be up and running at the time of this publication, and Kyiv Post is unable to ascertain the degree of damage to the system.

Screenshot of Moskollector’s hacked main page provided by the unnamed source to LIGA.net.

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According to Moskollector’s site, the company has been subordinate to the Moscow City Department of Housing and Communal Services since March 2017.

The alleged cyberattack on Moskollector follows another hack from the same group two days ago, on April 8, against Russian data center OwenCloud.ru, which saw the destruction of more than 300 terabytes of data used by the Russian military-industrial complex, oil and gas, and telecom in what the hacker group called a “retaliatory” strike in response to January’s Russian hack on Ukraine’s data center.

Cyberattacks have been commonplace throughout Russia’s war in Ukraine, with both sides launching cyberattacks in a tit-for-tat manner that are sometimes coordinated with conventional strikes evidenced in Moscow’s strike on Ukrainian infrastructure.