This was stated by Ilya Vityuk, head of the SBU Cybersecurity Department, in an interview with Ukrinform.

“Russia has launched what I call a national cyberattack program. In addition to recruiting and expanding the staff of hacking units in their own special services, they are also conducting recruitment and training campaigns. GRU and FSB officers are sending military universities and senior students with IT specialties to special cyberattack disciplines.” Vityuk stated that they are specifically taught how to attack critical infrastructures.

Vytyuk added that this applies not only to Ukraine. “(Russians – ed.) are studying the characteristics of various NATO countries, Middle Eastern countries – states in which Russia is potentially planning or foreseeing the possibility of military action. If the first cyber war is going on now, Russia is simultaneously preparing for the first world cyber war! In this regard They’re very serious.” added the SBU representative.

According to Vityuk, research and development work is carried out at Russian universities under the instructions of special services. For example, how to access documents, how to attack life support systems in this or that country, in this or that region, what equipment is used in logistics systems, how to automate the infiltration of some systems. In the future, lists will be created of the best students who are sent to study directly to special services, for example, to the GRU.

The SBU believes that this was done to increase the potential number and quality of cyber attacks.

Russian special services also include experts in certain fields who know how the infrastructure of attacked objects is built to carry out cyber attacks.

As reported, on December 12, 2023, the operator “Kyivstar” became the target of a powerful hacker attack, which led to a technical malfunction. Communication services and the internet became unusable.