At the current stage of cyberwar, there is parity between Russian special services and Ukrainian hackers.
At the current stage of cyberwar, there is parity between Russian special services and Ukrainian hackers.
This opinion was expressed on the YouTube channel Hack Your Mom during an interview with Mykyta Knysh by one of the co-founders of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, Andriy Baranovich (known as Sean Townsend).
«This is not a competition, we are not running in a race… Russian special services have reached their ceiling from an organizational and technical point of view, despite the fact that they have been doing this for a very long time, the oldest units — for over 15 years. And although they have nowhere to grow, they do not become less dangerous from this. But at the same time, Russia is not some superpower or superstate in cyberspace,» noted Sean Townsend.
According to him, when ordinary phishing is used to break into the gadgets of Russian intelligence officers and the FSB, obtaining secret information, it means that «something has gone wrong organizationally.»
At the same time, as Sean Townsend says, no one in Ukraine has systematically developed cyber offensive capabilities.
«Talks about creating cyber troops or cyber units have been going on for over 10 years. Strategies, doctrines, NSDC decisions are being adopted, even in the defensive part, something is starting to move from a dead point. But after the attack, we still don’t have official cyber troops. The GUR does something, the SBU does something, they report on their cyber operations, sometimes independently, sometimes together with independent hackers,» noted Sean Townsend.
Earlier, one of the co-founders of the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance, Sean Townsend, stated that his organization takes responsibility for the hacking of the Russian satellite operator Dozor-Teleport in 2023. The resonance of this case is added by the fact that this hacking was previously attributed to the Wagner group during its rebellion against the Russian authorities.
