Russia Recruits Members of “The Com” for Sabotage Operations

Russian intelligence is known to recruit criminals as so-called “disposable agents” in online spaces such as Telegram. A wave of sabotage attacks in Europe has been linked to this activity, as part of Russia’s hybrid warfare aimed at disrupting European support for Ukraine. [2]

“The Com” is an online community of mostly young men, primarily from Western nations. Members of this community are often antisocial, nihilistic, and misogynistic. “The Com” includes the sub-community “Hacker Com”, which consists of several loosely connected cybercriminal groups, including names such as “Shiny Hunters”, “Scattered Spider”, and “TeamPCP”. [3][4]

Other sub-communities include “764”, which focuses on sextortion and the abuse of young people, and “IRL Com”, which offers physical violence as a service for payment, often to settle internal conflicts between members.
Assessment

It is not surprising that Russian intelligence has attempted to recruit agents to carry out sabotage activities via “The Com”, as the online community and its sub-communities have members that offer violence-for-hire services.

So far, there are no indications that Russian intelligence has approached members of “Hacker Com”, a separate segment of “The Com”. However, the fact that Russian intelligence now appears to be active in the same online spaces as these Western cybercriminals should be a cause for concern.

If you or your organization has concerns about the activity described above or requires support, please contact your Truesec representative for further assistance.

References

[1] https://inews.co.uk/news/russian-spies-recruiting-uk-teenagers-acts-of-violence-sabotage-4766152
[2] https://www.truesec.com/hub/blog/russia-targets-businesses-and-officials-behind-europes-ukraine-defence-supply-chain
[3] https://euro-security.de/en/europol-takes-action-against-the-extremist-online-network-the-com/
[4] https://www.truesec.com/hub/blog/australian-arrests-allegedly-disrupt-teampcp