  There has been substantial commentary on the role of cyberattacks carried out
by low-level cybercrime actors in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. We analyse 358k
website defacement attacks, 1.7M UDP amplification DDoS attacks, 1764 posts
made by 372 users on Hack Forums mentioning the two countries, and 441 Telegram
announcements (with 58k replies) of a volunteer hacking group for two months
before and four months after the invasion. We find the conflict briefly but
notably caught the attention of low-level cybercrime actors, with significant
increases in online discussion and both types of attacks targeting Russia and
Ukraine. However, there was little evidence of high-profile actions; the role
of these players in the ongoing hybrid warfare is minor, and they should be
separated from persistent and motivated 'hacktivists' in state-sponsored
operations. Their involvement in the conflict appears to have been short-lived
and fleeting, with a clear loss of interest in discussing the situation and
carrying out both website defacement and DDoS attacks against either Russia or
Ukraine after just a few weeks.
