US observes trend in rising cyberattacks by patriotic groups

Senior U.S. defense officials reported that the government has observed a rise in the activities of individuals called patriotic hackers who conduct cyber operations to help their own governments without state mandate and have observed the trend in China and during the Russia-Ukraine crisis, according to DefenseScoop. Officials said during a meeting of the Defense Writers Group that a distributed-denial-of-service attack is a common theme seen with Chinese and Ukrainian patriotic groups, with the latter potentially believing the operations to in some way, shape, or form might be contributing to the Ukraine war effort against Russia, according to a senior U.S. defense official. Operations by some patriotic hackers could be exaggerated in terms of effect or are ineffective, another official explained, but the lack of potency in the operations carried out may not warrant ignoring the trend altogether. We dont have the luxury of not taking the threat from patriotic hackers seriously, said the official.