To conclude, there are many other questions outside observers can pose to figure out whether a data dump has value and can impact the war in Ukraine without even downloading it.  A group’s reputation and past claims, or even their ability to talk to journalists and researchers in a coherent manner when challenged on the details, can indicate how legitimate and valuable the data is. Not all hacking groups and data dumps, however, follow the same logic. The most impactful hacking groups and hacktivists in recent years, such as Phineas Fisher, the people that breached Mossack Fonseca, or the individual that supplied the Xinjiang Police Files, operated in ways that are so far removed from the hacktivism seen amidst the war in Ukraine. For now though, while embarrassing for the Russian government and private entities, most of the data dumps stemming from the war in Ukraine are largely inconsequential. 

​​Stefan Soesanto is a Senior Researcher in the Cyberdefense Project with the Risk and Resilience Team at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich.

Image: Reuters.