Russian 'Cyber Front Z' Hackers Hired to Target Ukraine—Report

Pro-Russia activists have formed groups on the social media platform Telegram and have been recruiting "cyber troops" to counter Ukraine's war narrative, according to a Russian media outlet.

Russian publication Fontanka said it had sent one of its correspondents to infiltrate a cyber-attack group named "Cyber Front Z".

The unnamed correspondent was able to meet with the "cyber troops" and discover how they operate across social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok and Telegram.

"The more successful our troops are against the Ukrainian plague, the more fakes and information attacks are being directed at us," Fontanka quoted the cyber group as saying in a Telegram post on March 11, according to a Newsweek translation.

The post continued: "The Ukrainian propaganda machine is in full swing. They wish us death, and the collapse of Russia.

"We can counter these attacks if we stand together. We are launching our Cyber Front Operation Z, to fight back on the information field against the Kyiv junta propagandists, financed by the West."

The Fontanka correspondent, who infiltrated the cyber group, said they needed spammers, commentators, content analysts, designers and programmers for the "front".

After passing the initial interview, the correspondent was introduced to other members and instructed on how to push a more Russian-friendly narrative. His role was apparently to be that of a troll, someone who intentionally seeks to frustrate or mislead other people on the internet.

During a meeting, the correspondent was told the group would provide support and had experts available to help craft comments that would support their cause.

"The job isn't hard, [you] just need to write comments in [Telegram] and other platforms," a woman told the correspondent during a meeting, according to a Newsweek translation.

"Curators will find the relevant chats and channels; they will also show you how to debunk the claims, what sentiment to convey.

"No need for long reads, just two or three sentences is enough."

U.S. President Joe Biden warned companies on Monday there was evolving intelligence that the Russian government was exploring options for potential cyberattacks. In order to protect business data, the government is urging companies to encrypt data so it can't be used if it is stolen and to have offline backups that attackers cannot access.

"My administration will continue to use every tool to deter, disrupt, and if necessary, respond to cyberattacks against critical infrastructure. But the Federal Government can't defend against this threat alone," Biden said in a statement.

"You have the power, the capacity, and the responsibility to strengthen the cybersecurity and resilience of the critical services and technologies on which Americans rely. We need everyone to do their part to meet one of the defining threats of our time."

Russian news sites have been hacked during the war. A host of Russian media sites, including news agency TASS, Kommersant and Izvestia were targeted by hackers last month to display messages calling for an end to President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

The war on the ground has been accompanied by a war for hearts and minds in the traditional and social media and some experts say Ukraine is winning that war.

"The current masters and winners of the information war at an international level are ... without a doubt the Ukrainians; and this relates to their media-savvy president producing powerful narratives, but in equal measure also the Ukrainian people, who are fact-checking information, documenting atrocities and generating a plethora of relatable and deeply touching stories of the gruesomeness and horror inherent to war," Bart Cammaerts, professor of politics and communication at the London School of Economics, wrote in a blog last week.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment.

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