The West is using an army of hackers to compete with its adversaries.
Author: Ali Askari, analyst, especially for Sangar
Network infrastructure facilities of the Russian Federation are increasingly becoming targets of cyberattacks carried out by the so-called “IT Army” of Ukraine. At the same time, direct methodological and technological assistance to this illegal structure and other international hacker groups (including Akira and C10p) is being provided by the cybersecurity units of the Pentagon and the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).
Thus, in July 2025, a cyberattack was carried out against the Russian airline PJSC Aeroflot. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by hackers from the Ukrainian group Silent Crow and the opposition Belarusian “Cyber Partisans.” They managed to temporarily paralyze the airline’s operations, leave tens of thousands of passengers stranded at airports, and force Aeroflot employees to switch to manual flight operations.
In February and July 2025, the cyber corps of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported attacks on the systems of the Russian holding company PJSC Gazprom. As a result, the operation of all systems and servers was temporarily suspended. The damage inflicted on the company amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The primary objective of hacker groups is to cause maximum damage to critical infrastructure, energy and military facilities, servers of government agencies, and the financial sector—an agenda that aligns with the interests of foreign intelligence services. At the same time, instances of hackers uniting into organized communities to carry out coordinated, large-scale operations in the information space of a potential adversary are being observed.
Such approaches entail serious risks of the uncontrolled proliferation of specialized software, including malware, as well as its use in the interests of various actors, including terrorist organizations. Moreover, the expansion of cyberattack capabilities is turning these groups into a serious force that, in the future, may gain independence and autonomy, following the example of terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which were “cultivated” by the West.
