Killnet Turn Their Attention To Lockheed Martin

The Killnet Russian hacking group claims it has launched the sophisticated cyber attack on arms supplier Lockheed Martin, saying that this is the start of a ‘new level attack.’ From the message released by the hackers, it appears that the attack against the US defence manufacturer began in early August.

Killnet are a powerful state-sponsored group connected with the recent attacks on Lithuanian government agencies.

In this incident, the objective of the attack is the supply of Lockheed Martin's advanced M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), supplied to the Ukrainian army and being used to devastating effect against Russian military targets in Russian- occupied Donetsk and Crimea. Hackers infiltrated Lockheed Martin with the intention of interrupting the supply of HIMARS.

In a statement reported by Life magazine, Killnet describe Lockheed Martin as "the actual sponsor of world terrorism... responsible for thousands of deaths... The notorious HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, supplied to Ukraine by the aforementioned military-industrial corporation, allow the criminal authorities of the Kiev regime to kill civilians, destroy the infrastructure and social facilities of the still temporarily occupied Ukraine." 

Each HIMARS can carry six GPS-guided missiles that can be reloaded in about a minute with a small team consisting of only a driver, gunner and launcher section chief. The range of the weapons is 80km (50 miles), almost double the ranger of M777 howitzers, another Western-made weapon that Ukraine has been using against Russian forces since May.

Killnet,is known for their Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and other attacks on government institutions and private companies since the commencement of Russia’s Ukraine invasion.  In this case the attack is thought to be an attempted network infiltration aimed at causing damage, rather than the temporary disruption associated with DDos. 

The hackers, in both the DoS and DDoS attacks, flood the servers of a given platform, service or website, with traffic to shut down the servers. The intense DDoS attack on Lithuanian government institutions and companies was carried out in retaliation for the blockade that Lithuania imposed on the transit of EU-sanctioned Russia goods like steel and iron ore to the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. 

Lockheed Martin:    Eurasian Times:    The Tech Outlook:    Newsweek:    DIHK:    Cybersecurity Insiders:  

RealClearDefense:    Caliber:    Cybersecurity Review:     Sundries:    The Record:    Image: Lockheed Martin

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