Federal Bailiff Service

Summary

The Federal Bailiff Service was among several Russian government agencies whose websites were defaced after attackers compromised a third‑party statistics widget used to track visitor numbers across the compromised sites. The breach allowed the intruders to replace official content with their own messages and temporarily block access to the pages, but the Russian Digital Development Ministry reported that the affected sites were restored within an hour. The incident occurred amid a broader exchange of cyber operations between Russian and Ukrainian actors, including warnings from Russian security officials about DDoS threats and the announcement of a Ukrainian IT Army conducting attacks against Russian infrastructure.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

On Tuesday evening in early March 2022, Russian authorities discovered that several federal agency websites had been altered after attackers published their own content and blocked access to the pages. The compromise was traced to a supply chain vector in which threat actors gained control of a statistics widget used to count visitors across multiple government sites. By manipulating the widget, the attackers were able to inject incorrect material onto the affected domains, including the site of the Federal Bailiff Service. The Russian Ministry of Economic Development’s press service explained that direct intrusion into the hardened websites is difficult, prompting adversaries to target external services such as the widget. Once the widget was compromised, the malicious content appeared on the agency pages almost immediately.

The Federal Bailiff Service website, along with those of the Energy Ministry, Federal State Statistics Service, Federal Penitentiary Service, Federal Antimonopoly Service, Culture Ministry and other state agencies, displayed the unauthorized content and became temporarily inaccessible to users. Russian officials reported that the incident was promptly localized after the anomalous activity was detected. According to the Russian Digital Development Ministry, the compromised websites were restored to normal operation within approximately one hour of the breach being identified. No further details about the specific nature of the false content were disclosed in the public statements. The restoration effort involved taking the widget offline and verifying the integrity of the web pages before returning them to service.

The attack occurred amid heightened cyber tensions between Russia and Ukraine, shortly after Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced the formation of an “IT army” to conduct offensive operations against Russian infrastructure. Earlier on the same day, the Russian Federal Security Service’s National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents (NKTsKI) issued warnings to organizations about the threat landscape and shared defensive guidance. Russian authorities also disclosed that they had compiled a list of more than seventeen thousand IP addresses allegedly used in distributed denial‑of‑service attacks against Russian networks. In response to speculation about a possible national internet disconnect, the Digital Development Ministry stated on Monday that there were no plans to isolate Russia from the global internet. These statements framed the website defacement as part of a broader pattern of reciprocal cyber activity between the two states.

Sources

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