According to officials, Ukraine is working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and American businesses to gather geolocation and cell phone data as proof of Russian war crimes.
According to Alex Kobzanets, an FBI special agent in charge who once held the position of the agency’s legal attache in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials are gathering digital data from battlefields and cities in Ukraine that have been devastated by war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Kobzanets stated at the RSA Cybersecurity Conference in San Francisco that “the FBI has experience with collecting that data, analyzing that data, and working through that data.”
He claims that this activity includes reviewing data from cell phones, doing forensic DNA analyses, and examining body parts retrieved from battlefields.
“The next step is to work with U.S. national service providers, transfer this information… get information about subscribers, get information about geolocation, where possible,” Kobzanets continued.
The project shows how the US and Ukraine are collaborating more closely on the cyber front, where Russia has been a common adversary for both nations.
An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by the Russian administration.
The agent also stated that throughout the previous 18 months, the US FBI had been assisting Ukraine in locating Russian accomplices, spies, and forces that had been present outside of Kyiv during the invasion.
Ukraine’s major partner in combating Russian cyberattacks, which it has been doing at least since 2015, has been U.S. security firms and authorities.
While the number of Russian attacks on Ukraine has increased over the past few years, according to Ilya Vityuk, head of the SBU’s Cyber Information Security Department, they have become more focused recently.
In a criminal case, “it is very difficult to prove who is guilty,” said Vitiuk. Because we gather all of this information and use it in our criminal cases, we must learn as much as we can about Russian cybercriminals.
“We believe that this cyber war crimes case is something new,” he added. “This is where we saw the first full-scale cyber warfare.”
