CENTRAL NEWS – Anonymous, has declared cyber-war against the Russian government after President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” against Ukraine and began bombarding major cities.
The group recently hacked into Russia’s media censorship agency Roskomnadzor and stole emails, as well as files amid fears that Russian leaders would shut down the internet. The files stolen by Anonymous hacktivists, who are attempting to undercut Putin’s propaganda, were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets).
The Russian government’s Roskomnadzor agency is attempting to prevent Russians from getting true, unbiased information regarding the invasion of Ukraine. As a response to that, the group posted footage of Russian TV channels being hacked to display coverage of the war last week.
The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since declaring “cyber war” on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and plans.
Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on Russian TV networks stands out.
The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the conflict. The video began circulating on the 26 February and was shared by Anonymous social media accounts with millions of followers. “JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine,” one post read.
It quickly racked up millions of views. But one of the smaller groups of Anonymous hackers said that they were responsible, and that they took over TV services for 12 minutes.
The first person to post the video was also able to verify it was real. Eliza lives in the US but her father is Russian and called her when his TV shows were interrupted. “My father called me when it happened and said, ‘Oh my God, they’re showing the truth!’ So I got him to record it and I posted the clip online. He says one of his friends saw it happen too.”
The hackers justified their actions saying innocent Ukrainians were being massacred. “We will intensify the attacks on the Kremlin, if nothing is done to restore peace in Ukraine,” they added. Anonymous says it has also taken down Russian websites and stolen government data, but Lisa Forte, a partner at cyber-security company Red Goat says most of these attacks have so far been “quite basic”.
A group, known as @Thblckrbbtworld (The Black Rabbit World), affiliated with the international hacktivist collective has announced the leak of 28GB of data obtained from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). Meanwhile, @YourAnonTV (Anonymous TV), another Twitter account associated with the hackers, confirmed the news.
Last week, Anonymous announced that it had hacked the CBR and promised to release over 35,000 files within 48 hours. They contain, among other things, some of the regulator’s “secret agreements”. But the Bank of Russia said that none of its information systems had been compromised.
Hackers have mostly been using DDoS attacks, where a server is overwhelmed by a flood of requests, she said. These are relatively simple to carry out and only take websites offline temporarily. “But the TV hack is incredibly creative,” she said, “and I would think quite difficult to pull off.”
On the 28th of March, the account @YourAnonNews shared a tweet where it shared that hackers released 140,000 emails from Russian firm MashOil, which designs, manufactures and maintains drilling, mining and fracking equipment as well as a message saying that the cyber attacks will continue against Russia until the war ends.
