Ukraine breaches Russian water supply company, seizes data

Ukraine has reportedly hacked Rosvodokanal, one of Russia’s largest private companies, and seized 1.5TB of data.

The operation was carried out by the Ukrainian hacker group Blackjack and was probably supported by the cyber specialists of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

According to the sources cited by the report, Rosvodokanal’s IT infrastructure was destroyed during a “powerful” cyberattack.

It said that the Ukrainian hackers encrypted 6,000 computers and deleted more than 50TB of data, including internal document management system, corporate emails, cyber protection services, and backups.

Another 1.5TB of data was seized and is currently analyzed by the SBU specialists, the report said. Rosvodokanal’s operations were disrupted as a result of the cyberattack, it noted.

Rosvodokanal supplies water to 7 million consumers and is part of the Moscow-based Alfa Group, one of Russia’s largest privately-held conglomerates.

The reported operation is part of cyberwarfare between Ukraine and Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor almost two years ago.

Last week, Ukraine said it attacked Russia’s tax service, and before that the country’s hacktivists said they breached a Russian media database.

Also last week, Ukraine’s telecoms giant Kyivstar said it was struck by a cyberattack that shut down internet services for millions of users.