Pentagon names websites created by Russians to collect data on Ukrainian military
The Pentagon has identified phishing sites created by Russians to collect personal data about Ukrainian military personnel and their families.
Source: Voice of America
Details: Two unnamed Pentagon officials have said that Russia's information warfare unit has set up at least two phishing sites, WarTears.org and ForeignCombatants.ru, posing as support sites for friends and family of missing, captured or killed Ukrainian soldiers.
Pentagon officials have suggested that Russia is using the names, phone numbers and addresses of Ukrainians obtained through these sites to determine whether any of these soldiers or their relatives are living in the Russian-occupied territories.
It is reported that this is likely done in order to detain family members living in the occupied territories of Ukraine and deport them to Russia.
One of the websites, WarTears.org, stated that its database contains information on more than 170,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
"It's very disturbing, but it also shows Russia's thorough approach to data collection and its willingness to exploit these vulnerabilities," said retired US Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, who worked in intelligence for more than two decades.
In September last year, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that according to estimates from various sources, Russian authorities had interrogated and forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians. Russia denies these claims.
A representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Petro Yatsenko, confirmed that the websites in question are fake. According to him, there are dozens of similar phishing sites that try to collect data about family members.
"They are playing on the feelings of extremely vulnerable relatives and friends of servicemen who went missing or were captured, using the fact that Russia does not provide Ukraine with information about the people they hold captive. The relatives hope that their loved ones are not dead but in captivity, and therefore provide their personal data," he said.
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