Ukrainian hacktivists from the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance have hacked the major St. Petersburg internet provider Nodex, stealing confidential documents and wiping out the compromised systems afterward.
“Russian internet provider Nodex in St. Petersburg has been completely looted and destroyed. The data has been stolen, and empty equipment without backups has been left behind,” the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance wrote on Telegram.
The hackers also shared screenshots of the Russian provider’s virtual infrastructure, including VMware, Veeam backup systems, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which were compromised during the breach. On Tuesday, Nodex confirmed the cyberattack.
The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks also detected disruptions in fixed and mobile connectivity within Nodex’s network following the provider’s confirmation of the attack. The ongoing outage of the company’s website highlights the severity of the situation. Nodex reported that the network core has been restored and specialists are working on rebooting switches. While many customers have regained internet access, full restoration of services has not yet been achieved.
Ukrainian Cyber Alliance
The Ukrainian Cyber Alliance has been active since 2016, when several hackers and hacktivist groups (such as FalconsFlame, Trinity, RUH8, and CyberHunta) joined forces to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression in cyberspace and registered as a public organization.
Since then, the Alliance has claimed responsibility for numerous hacks targeting various Russian organizations, including Russia’s Ministry of Defense, the Commonwealth of Independent States Institute (funded by the state-owned company Gazprom), the Ministry of Coal and Energy of the Donetsk People's Republic, political advisor Vladislav Surkov, numerous Russian military officers, and media outlets.
In October 2023, Ukrainian hacktivists also breached and destroyed the servers of the Trigona ransomware gang, stealing all their data, including source code, database records, and cryptocurrency wallets.
