A chilling Russian cyber aim in Ukraine: Digital dossiers

People crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee, crossing the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 8, 2022. Russia’s digital assaults on Ukraine may have caused less damage than many anticipated. But most of its hacking is focused on a different goal that gets less attention but has chilling potential consequences: data collection. — AP

BOSTON: Russia’s relentless digital assaults on Ukraine may have caused less damage than many anticipated. But most of its hacking is focused on a different goal that gets less attention but has chilling potential consequences: data collection.

Ukrainian agencies breached on the eve of the Feb 24 invasion include the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the police, national guard and border patrol. A month earlier, a national database of automobile insurance policies was raided during a diversionary cyberattack that defaced Ukrainian websites.