In May 2014, according to The Moscow Times, Russian government-connected hacktivist group CyberBerkut successfully breached the costumer database of Ukrainian lender Privatbank and posted Privatbank clients’ personal information online. CyberBerkut posted a statement on its VKontakte page calling the data breach retribution for the bank’s decision to close its branches in Donetsk and Luhansk. The Wall Street Journal and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab have linked CyberBerkut, a self-proclaimed independent pro-Russian hacktivist group, to Russian military intelligence agency (GRU)-connected hacking group Fancy Bear, or APT 28.