Ukrainian Intelligence Gains Full Access to Servers of Russia’s Authorities in Crimea
Cyber operatives of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) have carried out a large-scale digital operation against Russian occupation authorities in Crimea, gaining full access to their internal government servers and wiping all stored data, a Ukrainian intelligence source told journalists, The Gaze reports, citing Ukrinform.
“As a result of a successful special operation, cyber specialists of the Main Intelligence Directorate gained full access to the servers containing all documentation of the occupation authorities of Crimea,” the source said. “The large-scale operation lasted several days.”
According to the source, the operation began with a powerful DDoS attack that crippled the region’s digital infrastructure and paralyzed the local government’s information systems.
“While the occupiers were trying to figure out why their government services had crashed, HUR specialists infiltrated the electronic accounts of the occupation leadership,” the source explained.
The Ukrainian cyber team accessed internal platforms such as the “Dialogue” and “SED” electronic document management systems, “1C:Document Flow” accounting system, “Directum,” “Delo,” and “ATLAS.”
Over the course of two days, Ukraine’s military intelligence reportedly downloaded over 100 terabytes of classified documentation from the so-called “government of the Republic of Crimea,” including documents marked “top secret” related to Russian military facilities and logistics routes for supplying occupying forces on the peninsula.
“So much information was extracted that we’ll soon learn many sensational details about the activities and crimes of the Russian occupiers in Ukrainian Crimea,” the source said. He sarcastically “thanked” Anton Lyaskovsky, deputy minister of health in the occupation government, for unintentionally facilitating the operation.
After securing the data, HUR cyber operatives completely destroyed the data stored on servers of regional and district government institutions, ministries, and departments of the occupation administration.
The intelligence source confirmed that the operation did not go unnoticed in Moscow: “In the Russian State Duma, this has already been labeled as an element of ‘hybrid warfare’.”
Meanwhile, the so-called Ministry of Internal Policy, Information and Communications of Crimea acknowledged the incident, stating that technical experts were working to restore affected systems, though “some services may remain unavailable to users.”
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