Ukraine & Russia Situation From a Domain Names Perspective
For a few days, the eyes of the world are on the situation between Russia and Ukraine. Today, operations are also organized in the "cyber" dimension (besides the classic ones - land, air, sea, and space). This new dimension is not only used for attacks like DDoS against the enemy but also for propaganda. Involved parties will be spreading fake news or bad guys may try to steal your data or some money.
Yesterday, I wrote an article on my blog[1] about the importance of monitoring the domain names ecosystem. Every time, something happens in the world like an earthquake, big floods, or even major sports events, it is followed by a peak of new domains registrations. I had a look at new domains that contain the strings "russia" and "ukraine". Most domain names containing the word "russia" are not interesting but it's not the same for "ukraine".
Here is a list of recently registered domain names (only in February):
bowlingforukraine.com didrussiainvadeukraineyet.com freeukraine.store hasrussiainvadedukraine.today hasrussiainvadedukraineyet.net haverussiainvadedukraineyet.com helpukraine.info helpukraine.net isukraineinvaded.com isukraineinvadedyet.com letshelpukraine.com livefromukraine.com maps-ukraine.com nowarinukraine.art nowarinukraine.com pharma-ukraine.com plant-ukraine.com plebinukraine.com rosaryforukraine.com russiavsukraine.com strongukraine.com thetimesofukraine.com ukraine-russia.com ukraine-united.com ukraineborder.com ukraineconflict.com ukrainecrisis.com ukrainefreedom.com ukrainembroidery.com ukrainepeace.com ukraineresearch.com ukrainerussiawar.com ukrainestrong.com ukraineunited.co ukraineunited.net ukrainewar2022.com ukrainewarmap.com ukrainewarnewscom.com ukraineweb.site ukrainewin.com
Most of these domains are parked or just don't resolve to an IP address (yet). But some of them are already used to spread different types of messages:
If you're interested in cyber-attack escalation in Ukraine, SANS scheduled a special webcast about this topic tomorrow[2].
[1] https://blog.rootshell.be/2022/02/23/europol-interpol-phishing-ahead/
[2] https://www.sans.org/webcasts/russian-cyber-attack-escalation-in-ukraine/
Xavier Mertens (@xme)
Xameco
Senior ISC Handler - Freelance Cyber Security Consultant
PGP Key
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