Over three years and no end in sight, the Russia-Ukraine war is going brute force on the field and even in cyberspace. 

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What began as' Moscow's 'special military operation’ soon escalated to a full-blown attack. For Russia, the war has been oscillating between capturing tactical villages and intercepting drones, while Ukraine has been relying on arms supply from its allies. Is Kyiv really at the mercy of its allies or is it also simultaneously fuelling resources towards its plan B.

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What is lesser known is the war on a front that is rarely being spoken about. Since the war broke out, Kyiv has been actively working with ‘hacktivists’ (a compound of hack and activist) in cyberspace. The world saw the fall and the aggression in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv etc. Meanwhile, missiles and shells tested the military capabilities of the sparring countries and their allies. 

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What was happening in the backdrop of this war, was another war. The one that attacked systems, Ukraine, gave a shout-out to ‘hacktivists’ to look for vulnerabilities. WION spoke to one such active member, who has helped in finding vulnerabilities in Moscow's systems like Moscow Metro, Gazprom, Russian Central Bank, and more.

On Monday (Mar 31), when people were opening Mosow Metro website, it was leading them to Ukrainian Railways Ukrzaliznytsia homepage. In the past, the Russian Central Bank was hacked, where the systems had paused for considerable mount of time. 

Uzair Sheikh (name changed), security researcher, said, "Amid the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the cyber front seems to be reaching new highs and lows with several data leakages as well as important websites either being taken down or getting defaced."

Also read: Who was Anna Prokofieva? Russian journalist killed in landmine blast near Ukraine border

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He added, "Ukraine has surely played a great move by raising a cyber army of volunteers worldwide sharing the same motive of revenge against Russia, but unfortunately, I also believe that innocent businesses are taking a hit because of this."

How it all started: 

This initiative by the Ukrainian digital department has encouraged many across the globe to join them in paralysing Russian systems. As fierce as the war is on the ground, it's equally charged online. Officials holler on groups run on Telegram and other messaging apps, where the techies with all their might try to look for vulnerabilities. With fruitful input, they manage to pause important systems, causing disruptions.

"During the initial phases of this initiative, I decided to run some quick vulnerability scans across the government IP ranges of Russia, and with several vulnerabilities left unpatched, the situation is quite concerning. I am continually monitoring the developments through various Telegram channels and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better if we see all the attacks that have been executed thus far through these cyber armies."

How does it work?

The IT army of Ukraine is a group that collaborates with people from across the world. They provide kits and access to the software that helps find vulnerabilities in Russian systems. The mission of the authority is to bring 'Ukraine's victory in the war closer by exhausting the economies of the aggressor countries, disrupting the work of important financial, infrastructure, government services and the activities of large taxpayers.'

The team is certain about their victory, "We are the most powerful community in Ukraine and can simultaneously hold more than 800 targets."

The war on ground may or may not cease to end, but there are diagonal wars that are erupting each passing day.