NIZHNY NOVGOROD, May 23. /TASS/. Attacks by politically motivated hackers against Russia have morphed into acts of terrorism as they involve intimidation and threats of physical harm, Head of Solar’s security operations center Solar JSOC, Vladimir Dryukov said.

"Of particular concern is the issue of social engineering, which aims to directly intimidate and cause physical harm," Dryukov told TASS on the sidelines of the CIPR-2024 conference.

Today, hacktivism is turning into outright terrorism, the expert said, citing examples in which criminals ordered people to "set something on fire" or "deliver a bag" under the threat of stealing money from their accounts or causing physical harm to their relatives. Dryukov called this a serious and dangerous trend.

According to Dryukov, scammers continue to call and pretend to be intelligence or law enforcement officials, mostly posing as employees of the Russian Investigative Committee. They threaten their victims with legal action "or appeal to their patriotic feelings by informing them about their participation in a fake investigative experiment."