Several Ukrainian media outlets hacked by Russia

The media outlets attacked included Ukrainska Pravda, the business media site Liga.net, and the news sites Apostrope and Telegraf, which disseminated false information claiming that Russia had destroyed Ukrainian special forces in the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka. Ukrainian Army Chief of Staff Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Ukrainian troops had withdrawn from the city. The Russian military occupied Avdiivka in early February, but there is no official information confirming that the city's local special forces have been destroyed by Russia, and Liga.net has now deleted the false report, which had been circulating for some time. The organization has issued an apology to its readers and is investigating possible security breaches to prevent similar incidents in the future. Meanwhile, Ukraine's largest news site, Ukrainska Pravda, reported that its X account was hacked on Sunday evening and that hackers used it to post false content about Avdiivka. Ukraine's state cybersecurity agency (SSSCIP) blamed Russian hackers for the attack, saying the incident was part of Russia's "information war" against Ukraine, which is currently under investigation. Ukrainian media are often targeted by Russian hackers, with attacks on media focusing on the spread of disinformation. Yevheniia Nakonechna, the head of the Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA), noted that Russian hacking organizations include state-controlled threat actors, such as Sandworm, and that last year the CERT-UA detected dozens of cyber-attacks targeting Ukrainian media outlets and their employees. The agency noted that this is only a small fraction of all cases, as many organizations do not report cyber incidents.