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Security Service busts Russia-backed bot farm in Kherson Oblast

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Security Service busts Russia-backed bot farm in Kherson Oblast
(ssu.gov.ua)

The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, has uncovered a bot farm responsible for over 20,000 fake online accounts used to write disparaging content about Ukraine. The enforcers made an announcement on Nov. 25.

The SBU confiscated computers and more than 3,000 sim cards from the suspects. The alleged cybercriminals were backed by Russian intelligence, according to the SBU. They received money from its territory through electronic payment systems that are banned in Ukraine.

According to the SBU, Ukraine has seen some of the heaviest bot activity in the world since 2018, and Russia was behind most of it.

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Alexander Query

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Alexander Query is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the former business editor at the Kyiv Post. He worked as a TV correspondent and an anchorman at UATV in Ukraine, and received a BA in modern literature from La Sorbonne, in Paris.

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