The Cyber Police Division of the Nationwide Police of Ukraine dismantled one other huge bot farm, seizing pc tools, cell phones, and roughly 150,000 SIM playing cards of a number of cellular operators. BleepingComputer stories: The bots had been used to push Russian propaganda justifying Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, to disseminate unlawful content material and private info, and in numerous different fraudulent actions. In a joint operation, the cyber police and items of the Ukrainian Nationwide Police executed 21 search operations in Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Lvivand.
“The cyber police established that the attackers used particular tools and software program to register hundreds of bot accounts in numerous social networks and subsequently launch commercials that violated the norms and laws of Ukraine,” a cyber police press launch reads [machine translation]. “Along with spreading hostile propaganda, the accounts had been additionally used for unauthorized distribution of private knowledge of Ukrainian residents on the Web, in Web fraud schemes, and for sending recognized false messages about threats to residents’ security, destruction or injury to property.” Cyber police in Ukraine have busted a number of pro-Russian bot farms within the final 12 months, together with one final month referred to as “Botoferma” and one other one late final 12 months that was working for the Russian secret companies. Ukraine additionally traced a Russian propaganda operation to a bot farm that was secretly working within the nation’s personal capital of Kyiv final August. “The farm operated greater than 1 million bot accounts, which helped the propaganda operation construct an viewers of over 400,000 customers on social media,” stories PCMag.