Who are the pro-Ukrainian hacktivists?

On May 24, 2023, the journalist Bogdan Bodnar published an article for Numerama in which he related his exchanges with Western hacktivists who have sided with Ukraine in the conflict. One of them, Eric, a Belgian man in his forties, is a member of the IT Army of Ukraine. The Ukrainian government launched this collective two days after the start of the Russian invasion. Today, its Telegram Channel has 180,000 members, even if most are just spectators.

In 14 months, the IT Army of Ukraine has claimed over 600 DDoS attacks against Russian organizations, including banks, insurance companies and RuTube, the Russian YouTube. While often symbolic, these attacks have sometimes inflicted critical damage on their victims. “The goal is clear: to cripple the Russian economy, to harass its administration on a daily basis, to paralyze the banks, prevent public transportation fare payment…” lists Eric.

The hacktivist signed up in March, 2022, because he wanted to help an aggrieved country in “defense of the truth”. “I started out a bit blindly, without really knowing how to go about it. Like everyone, I began with DDoS attacks. Over time, the missions evolved, the attacks grew more professional. The goal is really to paralyze services, sometimes for days,” he points out.

He also mentioned that the IT Army of Ukraine provides its members with free DDoS attack tools. “At home, I have two computers running 24/7, constantly launching attacks,” explains Eric.

Other international hacktivist collectives support Ukraine, such as Hacking4Ukraine, which claims members in 28 countries. Bogdan Bodnar met with a member of an anonymous collective.