Coups, sabotage and assassinations: British intelligence analyzing Russia's GRU hacker unit operations

The UK Defense Intelligence has assessed the activities of the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) Unit 29155.

The UK Ministry of Defense posted this on X, Ukrinform saw.

On September 5, 2024, the UK National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) publicly assessed that Unit 29155 have been responsible for a series of offensive cyber operations worldwide since 2020. At least some of the hacker group's cyber operations have almost certainly been aimed at supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Such operations included the devastating WhisperGate malware used against Ukrainian targets in 2022. Other activities of the group included website defacements and network scanning for espionage purposes.

WhisperGate was previously attributed to the Russian state, but this new report directly links the attack to GRU Unit 29155.

Unit 29155 is assessed to be responsible for attempted coups, sabotage, influence operations, and assassination attempts throughout Europe. Offensive cyber operations therefore mark a development in the capabilities of Unit 29155.

"This further highlights the value the Russian state places on cyberspace in the context of their invasion of Ukraine," the report reads.