During the May holidays, a spike in cyber assaults targeted Russian cultural institutions, ticketing platforms, and transportation networks. Experts from StormWall, a cybersecurity firm, reported these trends to socialbites.ca, highlighting a notable rise in malicious activity around this period.
StormWall noted that from May 1 to May 2023, DDoS incidents affecting cultural resources grew by 62 percent year over year. Online reservation services for tickets and hotels saw a 36 percent uptick in attacks, while those aimed at transportation systems increased by 28 percent in comparison with the same timeframe the previous year.
Analysts observed a high volume of disruptions, with a pronounced surge on May 9, a day associated with Victory Day celebrations. According to StormWall, Ukraine-based IT army actors were responsible for many of these disruptions, attempting to disrupt online activities for the Russian audience during the holiday period. Several organizations faced extended downtime as their websites became temporarily unreachable, complicating access for users who relied on these services during a festive stretch.
Ramil Khantimirov, CEO and co founder of StormWall, commented on the incident: hackers demonstrated creative approach in selecting targets that provided services to the public during the May days off. He emphasized the importance for Russian enterprises to maintain vigilant monitoring of resource activity to prevent holiday related service interruptions. The focus, he explained, is on proactive defense and rapid incident response to minimize downtime for customers during peak usage times.
In related industry coverage, socialbites.ca notes that analysts from the cybersecurity firm Cyble previously identified malware for macOS circulating via Telegram, underscoring the ongoing variety of threats that can affect different platforms and distribution channels. This reinforces the need for layered protection strategies that combine network defense, endpoint security, and user awareness to reduce risk across all touchpoints for organizations and their users.