Anonymous vendetta targets Russia 
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Russia, no stranger to cyberwarfare, has come under a barrage of cyberattacks
from Anonymous “hacktivists” since its invasion of Ukraine
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WHO ARE “ANONYMOUS”?
Decentralised collective of international hackers who exploit weaknesses in computer systems to promote their political agenda – generally attacking organisations accused of misusing power

Hacktivists often wear Guy Fawkes masks, as portrayed in graphic novel V for Vendetta

NOTEWORTHY CYBERATTACKS

Feb 24: Anonymous Twitter account @YourAnonOne, tweets: The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government

Russian Center
for the Protection of Monuments website defaced with pro-Ukraine artwork. Circus melody Entrance of the Gladiators plays for 10 hours

RT State TV station temporarily taken off air

Feb 25: Russian Ministry of Defence website disabled, data leaked online

Feb 26: Russian military radio communications leaked

Numerous state TV channels hacked to show videos of war in Ukraine (hack repeated on Mar 6 to include streaming services)

Feb 27: Linux terminal hacked. Breach of gas control system in North Ossetia almost triggers explosion

Roscosmos space agency website hacked and defaced

Maritime tracking data hacked to change call sign of $100m yacht Graceful – allegedly owned by Putin – to FCKPTN and set target destination to Hell

Feb 28: Cyber Partisans* hack Belarus rail network, slowing transportation of Russian troops to Ukraine

Mar 1: Ministry of Economic Development database leaked

Mar 3: Anonymous says it has hacked over 2,500 Russian and Belarusian government sites, including state media outlets, banks, hospitals and airports

Mar 6: Russian military shortwave radios hacked to display infamous Trollface† image on equipment screens

Mar 9: More than 400 Russian CCTV cameras hacked to display anti-Putin messages. Some live feeds compiled into website behindenemylines.live

Mar 10: Roskomnadzor (agency that controls Russian mass media) sees 360,000 files leaked onto internet

Mar 11: New Polish Anonymous affiliate, squad303, sends 7 million SMS messages to Russian cell phones – The Kremlin is lying. Find out the truth about Ukraine on the free internet and in the Telegram app. Time to overthrow dictator Putin!

Mar 12: Russian military radios, using frequency 4625kHz, jammed

Mar 13: Rosatom, state-owned atomic energy company hacked, with gigabytes of data leaked

Mar 14: 20TB of data at Rosneft, Russia’s leading oil company, vandalised

Mar 16: Analysis of Russian databases finds 92 out of 100 compromised, with file names changed to Putin stop this war, Glory to Ukraine, and other pro- Ukrainian slogans

Website of Ministry of Emergencies hacked to display hyperlink that reads Don’t trust the Russian media – they are lying

Squad303’s online tool 1920.in allows public to text Russian cell phones – claims 30m SMS messages sent to date

Mar 17: Anonymous claims to have tripled strength of attacks against Russia since invasion began

Attacks continue...
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*Not associated with Anonymous. †Rage comic meme used to symbolise internet trolling. Pictures: Adnan Khan (Unsplash), Twitter, Creative Commons Sources: @YourAnonOne (Twitter), HACKREAD, Taiwan News, Microsoft, Independent, CNBC, BBC News, CBS News, MarineTraffic © GRAPHIC NEWS