Activists from the hacker group Anonymous attacked the energy company Rosneft Germany and claimed they stole 20 terabytes of data. According to SPIEGEL information, the Berlin public prosecutor's office has initiated proceedings because of the hacker attack and has commissioned the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) to carry out further investigations. Read more about it here.

Security researchers are urging pro-Ukrainian actors to be wary of downloading DDoS tools to attack Russia, as they may be booby-trapped with info-stealing malware. In late February, Ukrainian vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, called for a volunteer “IT army” of hackers to DDoS Russian targets. However, Cisco Talos claimed that opportunistic cyber-criminals are looking to exploit the subsequent widespread outpouring of support for the Eastern European nation. Specifically, it detected posts on Telegram offering DDoS tools which were actually loaded with malware. One such tool, dubbed “Liberator,” is offered by a group calling itself “disBalancer.” Although legitimate, it has been spoofed by others, said Cisco. Read more about it here. 

The Governmental Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine CERT-UA received a notification from the coordinating entities about the mass distribution of e-mails on behalf of the state bodies of Ukraine with instructions on how to increase the level of information security. The body of the letter contains a link to the website hxxps: // forkscenter [.] Fr /, from which it is proposed to download "critical updates" in the form of a file "BitdefenderWindowsUpdatePackage.exe" of about 60 MB. Read more about it here. 

Vodafone Portugal is slowly working to recover following a "deliberate and malicious cyberattack" that brought down services used by millions of people and businesses in that country, including those for ambulances and other emergency services. Vodafone Portugal—a subsidiary of UKbased Vodafone Group with 4.3 million cellphone subscribers and 3.4 million fiber subscribers—said in a statement that the attack began last Monday. The attack quickly took down the subsidiary's 4G and 5G networks and halted fixed voice, television, SMS, and voice and digital answering services.   Read more about it here.

Feb 24 - The government of Ukraine is asking for volunteers from the country's hacker underground to help protect critical infrastructure and conduct cyber spying missions against Russian troops, according two people involved in the project. As Russian forces attacked cities across Ukraine, requests for volunteers began to appear on hacker forums on Thursday morning, as many residents fled the capital Kyiv.   Read more about it here.

France is grouping the country's top cybersecurity experts in Paris' business district of La Defense, bringing together startups and household names to tackle the scourge of hacking, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday. The project has drawn inspiration from a similar set up in Israel, CyberSpark, which has served as a model for Michel Van Den Berghe, the head of France's Campus Cyber. The campus will be a base for cyber startups and experts from some of country's biggest listed companies such as LVMH, L'Oreal and largest banks.   Read more about it here.

German wind turbine operators have reportedly been confronted with a fault in the satellite connection of their systems. Dominik Bertrams, MD of wind farm operator Tobi Windenergie Verwaltungs GmbH, yesterday announced on Twitter the remote monitoring and control of thousands of wind turbines had failed. With the outage having occurred between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Thursday – when the Russian army invaded Ukraine – Bertrams suspected a cyberattack by Russian hackers. The reason for the failure has not yet been clarified.    Read more about it here.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has taken place both on and offline, blending physical devastation with escalating digital warfare. Ransomware gangs and other hacking groups have taken to social media to announce where their allegiances lie. Many of the pronouncements from these groups include threats against critical government infrastructure. Some collectives are state-sponsored while others are decentralized — but all are able to take down computer systems and breach organizations.    Read more about it here. 

The BlackCat ransomware group, aka ALPHV, has claimed responsibility for the recent cyberattack on Swissport that caused flight delays and service disruptions. The €3 billion revenue firm, Swissport, has a presence across 310 airports in 50 countries and provides cargo handling, maintenance, cleaning, and lounge hospitality services. Tuesday, BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware group posted a small set of sample files that the group claims to have obtained from Swissport. The threat actor has announced they are willing to sell the entire 1.6 TB "data dump" to a prospective buyer.   Read more about it here.

Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine has been met with fierce resistance throughout the country’s towns and cities. As Russian forces have moved closer to Kyiv, lawyers, students, and actors have taken up arms to defend their country from invasion. They are not the only ones: Volunteers have also flocked to join a Ukrainian volunteer “IT Army” that’s fighting back online. At around 9 pm local time on February 26, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister for digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced the creation of the volunteer cyber army. Read more about it here.