Russian scientific research center attack admitted by pro-Ukraine hacker group

Pro-Ukraine hacking operation BO Team has admitted responsibility for an attack against Russia's State Research Center on Space Hydrometeorology, or Planeta, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. The intrusion, which was targeted at the scientific research center's largest branch, was claimed to have resulted in the destruction of two petabytes of data from 280 servers, which could mean losses of at least $10 million, according to Ukraine's defense intelligence directorate. The GUR, which did not confirm its involvement in the attack, also noted that hackers were able to disrupt Planeta's HVAC and emergency power supply systems, as well as a Russian Arctic station's internet supply. "Dozens of strategic Russian companies, which work for defense and play a key role in supporting the Russian occupation forces, will remain without critically important information and services for a long time," said GUR. Such claims come after Ukrainian hacktivist operation IT Army was confirmed to have compromised Russian internet service provider Akado through a distributed denial-of-service attack.