Ukrainian experts have allegedly intercepted thousands of calls from Russian soldiers as they call home from the frontline.
While in Ukraine, Russian calls are being intercepted “as they go through a Ukrainian telecommunications provider or intercepted over the air,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, a cyber expert. “That doesn’t pose too much difficulty for the Ukrainian security services.”
According to The Guardian, eavesdropping experts have intercepted thousands of calls and have analysed them for any intelligence. Listening into enemy communications, whether it be calls home or conversations of military strategy between commanders, plays a vital part in intelligence gathering and the threat of eavesdropping cannot be underestimated.
An intercepted call between a father and the colleagues of his fallen son revealed how during a Ukrainian onslaught “We weren’t allowed to retreat. Otherwise, we may be shot.”
In another call a soldier tells his wife how he fled with three others from the bloodshed while telling her “We were all allowed to be slaughtered.”
In the first period of the war, there was such a lack of security around Russian communications that even amateurs were able to intercept Russians communicating confidential strategic information, showing just how easily an eavesdropping attack can be conducted if an attacker has a motive. The risk also transfers over to the commercial sector as there are many motives surrounding business as well as personal lives. Therefore TSCM, Technical Surveillance Counter Eavesdropping is becoming increasingly more important in the security space and should not be overlooked.