In his online speech at InfoSec Ukraine 2025, Rick Ferguson, Vice President of Security Intelligence at Forescout, spoke about the emergence of "faketivism" - the use of hacker groups by states under the guise of activists to achieve geopolitical goals.
In his online speech at InfoSec Ukraine 2025, Rick Ferguson, Vice President of Security Intelligence at Forescout, spoke about the emergence of "faketivism" - the use of hacker groups by states under the guise of activists to achieve geopolitical goals.
The expert emphasized that modern cyberattacks are becoming increasingly targeted, frequent, and coordinated with government plans, and hacktivist groups are often directly supported by states or act in their interests. The states themselves, which use front hacktivists to carry out cyberattacks, retain the ability to deny their involvement.
Mr. Ferguson cited examples of attacks carried out by both the pro-Ukrainian BLACKJACK and pro-Russian NoNAME057(16) groups, as well as the activities of other state-run hacking groups, from the People's Republic of China and the North Korean Lazarus Group.
In particular, BLACKJACK hacked the website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Russia and stole technical documentation from 500 facilities of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation . During these attacks, the hacktivists obtained more than 100 terabytes of valuable data.
Rick Ferguson noted that cyberattacks are often accompanied by disinformation campaigns on social media to spread panic and instability, with the real consequences of the attacks being exaggerated or fabricated.
The expert expects further use of AI in cyberattacks, integration of cyber conflicts with geopolitical confrontations, and the use of traditional cybercriminal techniques, such as ransomware, by "state" hackers.
