Ukraine Hacks Russia's Tax Service, Which Has Been Paralyzed For Four Days

Ukraine continues to demonstrate its technological virtuosity - as well as its sense of humor. 

The system was infected with malware by the Ukrainians, has remained down for four days, may never be fully restored and could take a month to bring back on line. Which will be an expensive slap, even for a big country like Russia. JL 

Alona Mazurenko reports in Ukraine Pravda:

Cyber units of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence attacked Russia's tax system, destroying the entire database and backup copies. (They) also attacked the IT Office.ed-it.ru, which services the Taxation Service. Russia (may) not be able to resuscitate its tax system fully.  "During the special operation, (cyber warriors) broke into one of the central servers of the Federal Taxation Service (FTS of the Russian Federation), and then into 2,300 of its regional servers throughout Russia, as well as in occupied Crimea. As a result of the cyberattack, all servers were infected with malware. Russia has been trying to restore the tax service for four days. The paralysis is expected to last at least a month.

Cyber units of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence attacked the tax system of Russia and managed to destroy the entire database and its backup copies. The intelligence adds that Russia will not be able to resuscitate its tax system fully.

Source: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine

Quote: "During the special operation, military spies managed to break into one of the well-protected key central servers of the Federal Taxation Service (FTS of the Russian Federation), and then into more than 2,300 of its regional servers throughout Russia, as well as on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea.

As a result of the cyberattack, all servers were infected with malware...

The Russians have been unsuccessfully trying to restore the work of the Russian tax authorities for the fourth day in a row. The experts say the paralysis in the work of the Federal Taxation Service of the Russian Federation will last at least a month. At the same time, resuscitation of the tax system of the aggressor state in full is impossible."

Details: Ukrainian specialists also attacked Russian IT company Office.ed-it.ru, which serviced the Federal Taxation Service of the Russian Federation, in the same way.

Reportedly, managed to completely destroy the configuration files that for years ensured the functioning of the extensive tax system of the Russian Federation – the entire database and its backups were destroyed as a result of two cyberattacks.

Communication between the central office in Moscow and 2,300 Russian territorial administrations is paralysed, as well as between the Federal Taxation Service of the Russian Federation and Office.ed-it.ru, a tax data centre (data bank).

Users commenting that the website of the Federal Taxation Service is down

The intelligence notes that this means a complete destruction of the infrastructure of one of the main state bodies of Russia and numerous related tax data over a long period.

In addition, Internet traffic of tax data on the scale of the whole of Russia ended up in the hands of the military intelligence of Ukraine.

The error message displayed on the website of the Federal Taxation Service, with a big list of Russian regions where the site’s work may be unstable