War in Ukraine: Russia hacked Ukrainian CCTV cameras to plan its New Year attack

L'armée russe a détourné des caméras de surveillance ukrainiennes afin de les utiliser pour préparer son attaque du Nouvel An. MAXPPP – Patrick Lefevre

Le piratage de ses caméras a aidé la Russie à lancer une attaque de drones et de missiles sur Kiev le soir du nouvel an.

The war in Ukraine is not only being fought at the front. There is also a digital issue in this conflict. Indeed, this Tuesday, January 2, the Ukrainian security services revealed on Telegram that video surveillance cameras located on their territory had been hacked by the army Russian, as reported Numerama.

For what purpose ? Russia's objective was to manipulate these cameras remotely in order to monitor air defense systems and strategic buildings in Kiev.

Russian software present in cameras

This hack allowed the Russian army to plan the "record" of drones launched on the Ukrainian capital as the new year passed. More than 90 drones were launched on Ukraine on New Year's Eve, six people were killed and 129 others were injured.

Plus, the Russians had an advantage in hacking these cameras. The Russian hackers were able to use Russian software that was still installed on the video devices. The images from the cameras were transmitted directly to servers based in Moscow and some were even broadcast directly on YouTube.

Since this cyberattack, the affected Ukrainian cameras have been deactivated.