Wars are no longer just fought on battlefields or streets, but in cyberspace, too. The Ukrainian government has actively sought the help of volunteer hackers — and hundreds of thousands have answered the call. The global hacktivist collective Anonymous has meanwhile gone after Russian state media posting anti-war messages on the websites of state media channels. Another group recently disabled EV charging stations in Russia, reprogramming them to display messages like: “Glory to Ukraine.” But what are the risks of retaliation from Russian state-backed hackers, and could this turn into a full-on cyberwar?
Parmy Olson hosted a Twitter Spaces with Bloomberg reporter Ryan Gallagher and Yuliana Shemetovets, a spokesperson for Belarusian Cyber-Partisans — a group of “hacktivists” who appear to have disrupted trains transporting Russian soldiers through Belarus. Here is a lightly edited transcription of their conversation.
