IT Army of Ukraine: How a team of amateur hackers is striking at Russia

An amateur army of hackers formed by the Ukrainian government is bringing down the websites of Russian government departments and national banks

By Matthew Sparkes

Thousands of amateur hackers from countries around the world have joined a Ukrainian group dedicated to bringing down Russian government and financial websites in response to the invasion of the country, according to statements from the Ukrainian government, evidence of Russian website outages and instant-messaging groups seen by New Scientist.

The so-called IT Army of Ukraine was conceived by Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, who tweeted on 26 February – two …