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Comment by joeman1000 | Hacker News Reader

I’d like to get involved but have cursory ‘hacking’ knowledge. I’m handy with a terminal and can program. Would I be of use?

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If you have to ask, lone wolf behavior is more likely to end up with you in jail than to do anything that helps Ukraine. If you are serious and are a citizen of a signatory to NATO, consider enlisting with your country's cyber force.

What does being a NATO signatory have to do with anything? Ukraine is not a part of NATO and I’m not aware of NATO authorizing any direct military or digital action against Russia.

NATO has not authorized direct action, but seeing as how NATO states border Russia and Ukraine, and given the alliance's founding principle of deterrence of the historical USSR, it has an obvious concern. And NATO signatories have more than likely engaged in cyber-offensives against Russia already (e.g. [1]).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cyber_Command#Op...

If you are a member of a NATO signatory, that's associated with a lot of formal cyber rules and leaders who won't look well on cyber activism. I took it as a rule of thumb, not direct cause/effect.

Only if you’re an amateur. I got shell access into some public utilities that had old versions of Windows in Russia that I’m looking at right now. Maybe I can turn off some power grids.

Go for it

> If you have to ask

> Only if you’re an amateur

They're not looking for lone wolfers. They are asking for applications:

> "Ukrainian cybercommunity! It's time to get involved in the cyber defense of our country," the post read, asking hackers and cybersecurity experts to submit an application via Google docs, listing their specialties, such as malware development, and professional references.

As long as you're in a country where it's not illegal to help the Ukraine, I say put in an app and see where it goes :-)

> $ cp ./russia/mil/intelligence ./Desktop

-r

Nah its just one file

Do regular programming and donate money to relief orgs.

If SWIY wants to turn the cursory into well-versed…ery.

Anonymously set up a Bitcoin VPS in a country that won’t care about a little heat, only connect to it using SSH over Tor, preferably from a public wifi. I think this the BEHIND SEVEN PROXIES of 2022, but still not watertight based on a traffic correlation attack from one of the many glowing Tor nodes.

Or just practice in your home lab, like me. If you have a computer and internet, it’s free.

Almost certainly not. This isn’t jacking accounts from some corporation or breaking into the network of some jihadi cell/far right group this is a state level actor and can only be equaled by other state level actors of which their only a handful of their caliber.

Unless you're accustomed with hardening or breaking into systems you won't be of any help. You could certainly volunteer though if you wish.

It seems like a fine place to practice.

I suppose the easiest one would be to DDoS any website/service with ties to the Putin and band.

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