Ukrinform correspondent said that the Russian Federation even involves students in cyber attacks, as Halyna Pryshchepa, head of the press service of the State Security Service of Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, said at the briefing.

Speaking about the Donetsk region, Prishchepa said, “In 2023, our cyber experts neutralized 11 cyber attacks and eliminated their consequences on state institutions, critical infrastructure facilities and military facilities.”

He also recalled that during Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the SBU blocked the activity of a bot farm operating in Pokrovsk and Kiev on the territory of the Donetsk region.

Pryshchepa explained that the cybersecurity department of the SBU has information that Russia has created a national system of cyberattacks, introducing relevant topics into the educational programs of educational institutions in order to involve even students in hacking activities.

“And this is often done under the control of Russian special services. So now we are talking not only about special personnel, but also about the fact that the topic of “cyber attack on civilian infrastructure” is already taught in educational institutions. The Russians want to increase the size of attacks and the number of people who can do this professionally. And by the way , they teach how to attack not only Ukrainian systems, but also the systems of partner countries,” said the SBU employee.

According to him, thousands of Russian hackers and cybercriminals hired by Russia are already working against Ukraine and are financed by the special services of the Russian Federation.

“Their motivation is not to hack for money, but to destroy the Ukrainian state,” Pryshchepa emphasized.

As Ukrinform reported, since the beginning of the year, cyber experts of the Security Service of Ukraine have neutralized nearly 4,000 cyber attacks by Russian hackers on electronic systems of central authorities and critical infrastructure.