Hacking group posted fake Ukrainian surrender messages, says Meta in new report
ABelarus-aligned hacking group has attempted to compromise the Facebook accounts of Ukrainian military personnel and posted videos from hacked accounts calling on the Ukrainian army to surrender, according to a new security report from Meta (the parent company of Facebook).
The hacking campaign, previously labeled “Ghostwriter” by security researchers, was carried out by a group known as UNC1151, which has been linked to the Belarusian government in research conducted by Mandiant. A February security update from Meta flagged activity from the Ghostwriter operation, but since that update, the company said that the group had attempted to compromise “dozens” more accounts, although it had only been successful in a handful of cases.
Where successful, the hackers behind Ghostwriter had been able to post videos that appeared to come from the compromised accounts, but Meta said that it had blocked these videos from being shared further.
The spreading of fake surrender messages has already been a tactic of hackers who compromised television networks in Ukraine and planted false reports of a Ukrainian surrender into the chyrons of live broadcast news. Though such statements can quickly be disproved, experts have suggested that their purpose is to erode Ukrainians’ trust in media overall.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/hacking-group-posted-fake-ukrainian-surrender-messages-says-meta-in-new-report/ar-AAVXXPI