Hackers who claim to be affiliated with Russia’s Wagner group say they’ve breached a Russian satellite internet provider and forced it offline.
The mysterious group posted their claims in a Telegram channel as the Russian satellite communications provider Dozor-Teleport became unreachable on Thursday morning.
“Confirmed: Metrics show a disruption to satellite internet provider Dozor-Teleport which supplies Russia's FSB (Federal Security Service), Gazprom, Rosatom and military installations,” internet traffic monitor NetBlocks reported. Others, including Kentik and Internet Outage Alerts, also confirmed Dozor-Teleport remains offline.
In a Telegram message, the hacking group claims “part of the satellite terminals” failed at Dozor-Teleport, and information was wiped from the Russian company’s servers. As proof, the group posted apparent internal documents from Dozor-Teleport, suggesting they successfully compromised the company's network.
The group says it also defaced four Russian websites with a message titled: "Who are the Wagners? Everyone saw them on June 24th."
“The whole world watched our actions, listened to our every word. We showed how easily we can reach Moscow in a day without meeting any resistance,” the message adds.
The disruption occurs days after security researchers spotted a piece of ransomware that was also promoting the Wagner group. When it infects, the ransomware will drop a note written in the Russian language that encourages users to sign up with the paramilitary organization.
But it remains unclear if the ransomware or the breach of Dozor-Teleport are connected to the real Wagner group. So far, the official Telegram channel for the Russian military organization has yet to comment on any of the cyberattacks.
This past weekend, Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin briefly rebelled against the Russian military by marching his troops toward Moscow while accusing the country’s defense ministry of incompetence. However, the rebellion was short-lived; Prigozhin called off his troops a day later and has since agreed to live in exile in Belarus.
So it’s possible that disgruntled segments of Wagner continue to revolt against Russian leadership. But some researchers suspect the hacks come from other parties looking to sow chaos in Russia. “Again this looks like Ukrainian false flag trolling,” tweeted foreign policy expert Oleg Shakirov. “But the damage the satellite operator hack has done is apparently very real.”
Indeed, the hack could be payback from Ukraine after Russia allegedly breached satellite internet provider Viasat during the onset of the war between the countries. In the meantime, the alleged Wagner hackers are warning the Russian government: “This is just the beginning, more to come.”
“We have fulfilled our end of the bargain. But what do we see instead? The current military leadership has not been removed from office, criminal cases have not been closed. Have you decided to play with us? In vain. You kicked us out of the NWO zone, out of Russia, but you can't kick us out of the network,” the group’s message added.