Ukraine claims to have doxed Russian troops and spies, while hacktivists are regularly leaking private information from Russian organizations. NAMES, BIRTHDAYS, PASSPORT numbers, job titles—the personal information goes on for pages and looks like any typical data breach. But this data set is very different. It allegedly contains the personal information of 1,600 Russian troops who served in Bucha, a Ukrainian city devastated during Russia’s war and the scene of multiple potential war crimes. The data set is not the only one. Another allegedly contains the names and contact details of 620 Russian spies who are registered to work at the Moscow office of the FSB, the country’s main security agency. Neither set of information was published by hackers. Instead they were put online by Ukraine’s intelligence services, with all the names and details freely available to anyone online. “Every European should know their names,” Ukrainian officials wrote in a Facebook post as they published the data. Since Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s borders at the end of February, colossal amounts of information about the Russian state and its activities have been made public. The data offers unparalleled glimpses into closed-off private institutions, and it may be a gold mine for investigators, from journalists to those tasked with investigating war crimes. Broadly, the data comes in two flavors: information published proactively by Ukranian authorities or their allies, and information obtained by hacktivists. Hundreds of gigabytes of files and millions of emails have been made public. (…) “When you think about what comes after the war, these lists might be a big feature of it,” McDonald says. The lists—if the information they contain is accurate—may provide a starting point for investigators looking into potential war crimes in Ukraine. For instance, a name could be linked to a photo, which is linked to a social media account, or footage that places someone in a particular location or event. Each piece of information could act as a tiny piece in a much larger puzzle. Researchers are already racing to save and archive thousands of TikToks, Telegram messages, and social media posts in formats that can be used as evidence. (Although it is unlikely that Russia would extradite anyone accused of crimes to face trials.)
via wired: Russia Is Leaking Data Like a Sieve