Banksy’s fundraising for Ukraine interrupted by ‘hostile attacks from Russia’

By Dain Oh, The Readable
Jan. 12, 2023 7:57PM KST

A fundraising event for Ukraine that was coordinated by the worldly acclaimed graffiti artist Banksy and an international charity organization has been disrupted by thousands of cyberattacks which came from Russian IP addresses, according to the Legacy of War Foundation.

While notifying the public that the registration for the Banksy auction is closed, the Legacy of War Foundation disclosed that its website received “3,500 hostile attacks from Russian IP addresses,” which led to a longer selection process for successful applicants than expected. The requests themselves came from over 1 million people who expressed their interest in buying Banksy’s artwork.

Last month, Banksy announced that they had made a series of prints to raise money for the people in Ukraine. “I’ve made 50 of these screenprints with all proceeds going to our friends in Ukraine,” Banksy wrote under a print that features a rat, sliding down a cardboard box with the word “FRAGILE” written on it. Each print of the series is numbered and different because every piece will be cut with a pizza cutter by Banksy, the foundation explained.

In the original statement regarding the sale, Banksy elaborated on the partnership with the foundation. “In Ukraine, I saw a Legacy of War team sweep in and provide medical attention, heaters, fresh water and a friendly face to some very desperate people in a bombed out building,” said Banksy. “They also lent me one of their ambulances to work from, which turned out to be extremely useful when an angry babushka found me painting on her building and called the Police. I feel the least I should do is raise enough money to replace the number plates on the ambulance I hotted up.”

ohdain@thereadable.co

Dain Oh is an award-winning cybersecurity journalist based in South Korea and the founding editor-in-chief of The Readable by S2W. Before joining S2W, she worked as a reporter for The Electronic Times, the top IT newspaper in Korea, covering the cybersecurity industry on an in-depth level. She reported numerous exclusive stories, and her work related to the National Intelligence Service led to her being honored with the Journalist of the Year Award in 2021 by the Korea Institute of Information Security and Cryptology in a unanimous decision. She was also the first journalist to report on the hacking of vulnerable wallpads in South Korean apartments, which later became a nation-wide issue.