Why do hackers target Russian infrastructure?

Since May, Russian airports have been closed more than 260 times.

On July 28, the Silent Crow hacker group and the Belarusian Cyber Partisans stated...that they carried out a lengthy and large-scale operation, which resulted in the complete destruction of the internal IT infrastructure of the Russian airline Aeroflot.

Political Motivation

This is the most obvious reason. For example, after hackers destroyed Aeroflot’s IT infrastructure, stated: “We are helping Ukrainians in their fight against the occupiers, crippling Russia’s largest airline, and inflicting colossal financial damage”. Silent Crow and the Belarusian Cyber Partisans are among the many hacker groups operating within the framework of cyberwarfare, which runs in the background since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Such groups consider themselves part of the digital resistance—cyber-partisans; as a rule, they are pro-Ukrainian or pro-Western activists; They see the attacks as a way to undermine Russian statehood.

Destabilization

Here, the goal may be quite pragmatic. Disabling critical infrastructure (railways, the energy sector, banks, airports, and communications) would cause public discontent...to undermine trust in the authorities—that is, perhaps, the main goal. And also to bring about chaos in logistics, economics, transportation, or government systems—a side effect that is also a goal of the overall relaxation of restrictions.

The Propaganda War

This is also a front, only a digital one. It creates a barrage of information that is hard to ignore, even under Russian or Belarusian censorship. Hacking is media event. It gets picked up by the media, social media, and Telegram channels. Which is exactly what happened in the case of Aeroflot. As a bonus, hacked websites may display anti-war slogans, stolen documents, evidence of corruption (The Belarusian Cyber Partisans very often organize such actions.)

Intelligence Gathering

By hacking into Aeroflot and destroying its IT infrastructure, the hackers not only caused utter chaos at Russian airports, but also “downloaded all the internal correspondence and listened to "employees for over a year," and the complete Passenger flight history. According to the hackers, some of the files will appear in open access in the near future.

In other words, sometimes hacker attacks aren't just for show. They're about gathering data (documents, correspondence, contracts, government procurement plans), including on behalf of other countries' intelligence agencies—although such groups formally present themselves as independent.

Response to the Russian Federation's Actions

If Russia attacks the cyber infrastructure of Ukraine or other countries, Silent Crow and the Cyber Partisans may act according to the principle of “You hit us with a DDoS, and we’ll wipe your databases”.

Image, hype, respect within the community

Hacker groups also live in their own world. The more high-profile the attack, the greater their prestige on the dark web and among other groups. Successful hacks are prestige; This is Band Profile: “We’re good at what we do; people fear us and admire us.”