By Sam Boughedda
A report by The Wall Street Journal Friday stated that an increasing amount of research suggests pro-Russian hackers and online activists are coordinating with Russian military intelligence.
Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Mandiant cybersecurity group researchers have reportedly seen coordination between pro-Russian hacking groups and cyber break-ins by Russia's military intelligence agency.
Meanwhile, Western officials and security experts are interested in the links as they could help shed light on Russia's intentions inside and outside of Ukraine.
The WSJ article states that Mandiant has observed hacking activity linked to Russia's military intelligence on four occasions, with "wiper" software, which causes disruption by destroying computer systems installed on a victim's network. Following that, hackers are then said to have published data stolen. Mandiant is said to have reported that three pro-Russian hacktivist groups were involved.