In recent days, Ukrainian military personnel have been receiving spam messages from Russians via Signal Messenger containing “New Year’s greetings,” including “raising the Russian tricolor over their heads” and “national greetings.” It includes a call to “purify the evil that has flooded the world.” ”
Relevant screenshots were provided to the Kyiv Post by several Ukrainian military officials. The text of the messages received is the same.
“Dear compatriots, on the eve of the New Year, in accordance with good Russian traditions, I wish you peace and happiness. Happiness and mutual understanding! May 2024 bring peace and order to the former Russian land. Good luck!
“May each of you, with pride and reverence, raise above your head the Russian tricolor symbol of nationhood, freedom, and independence! Cleanse yourself from the evil that descends upon our country! And we We will help you! Glory to Ukraine as part of the Russian Federation! Happy holidays, dear compatriots! Happy New Year!”
After monitoring social media, the Kyiv Post concluded that such messages were received not only by the military, but also by civilian Ukrainians.
Concerns have been raised in society about the possibility that Signal Messenger, widely regarded as one of the most secure messaging platforms in the world, could be hacked by Russian special services. The Ukrainian military relies on Signal for operational communications.
Andriy Yusov, head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (HUR), told the Kyiv Post that intelligence services have recently observed the occurrence of various types of hostile emails attacking both messengers and email addresses. he said.
Other interesting topics
Europe on fire: What to do (Part 5)
The Russo-Ukrainian war is not a local conflict. Europe’s future is at stake. A detailed five-part analysis examines the choices facing the West.
“It is clear that this is another attempt to put pressure on Ukrainian society. Very often these emails are random in nature, meaning that some of the messages that were supposed to be addressed to the military may be received by civilians and vice versa,” a spokesperson for the HUR representative said.
He pointed out that the text of these messages is mostly very primitive and “cannot persuade, encourage or frighten Ukrainians in any way.” Yusov did not rule out the possibility that the Russians could use old databases, especially email addresses, to send such spam emails.
“In today’s world, finding a specific database containing phone numbers is not a problem. This does not mean that an adversary knows exactly who you are trying to send a specific message to. No,” he explains.
HUR stressed that it does not suspect that Messenger was hacked in this case.
“Information arrives in the messenger installed on a specific phone number. The information received does not necessarily indicate a hacked messenger. However, messages from unknown numbers are potentially dangerous, as well as text messages. We recommend that you do not open them, as they may be harmful to you,” Yusof added.
Colonel Vladislav Seleznyov, former head of the General Staff Press Affairs Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), assured the Kyiv Post that there is no doubt that the signal was hacked.
“How does spamming work? A mass email is sent to all Messenger users in a particular region or district at a designated location equipped with the appropriate equipment to identify Signal users.” the colonel said.
“The signal base is well protected. I don’t think Signal was hacked, and I don’t think we all need to abandon Signal here and now,” Seleznyov added.
The AFU colonel emphasized that the intelligence element is an important part of the Russian invasion. He revealed that the Russians send such spam messages to telephones and e-mails in order to create an atmosphere of hopelessness and hopelessness in Ukrainian society.
“We can see that the situation within society is quite tense due to certain decisions of military and political leaders due to the debate on how to continue to repel Russian aggression. This spam email , fueling a hellish debate,” Seleznev pointed out.
He said the narrative promoted in the messages sent had nothing to do with the plans of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates, as “the enemy does not hide its intention to destroy Ukraine as a state.” drew attention to the facts.
“You should not believe that the information distributed in these spam messages is true. The enemy is trying to lie, increase despair in Ukrainian society and spread discord. Peace and tranquility on the territory of our country. The only way to take it back is to kill with weapons the Russian invaders who invaded our territory. There is no other way, ”Seleznyov concluded.
Signal is a cross-platform encrypted instant messaging service founded by U.S. citizens Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton and developed by the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger.
According to Ukrainian IT portal ITC.ua, the messenger features encrypted device-to-device (E2EE) messages. All communications within the application, including video calls, phone calls, and transferred files, are always encrypted and hidden by this encryption.
This means that the data is stored on the user’s device and not on Messenger’s servers. Therefore, even application developers cannot access them. Messenger does not collect user data and does not display advertisements. The development of the application is funded by private donations.
Earlier, a team of experts from the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine pointed out that Sliema Messenger could serve as an alternative to the signal, which is often used by the Ukrainian military and is considered conditionally safe. Threema offers more cross-checking and validation tools, but they are costly to install.