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Various groups of digital activists show their support for Ukraine with cyberattacks against Russian websites to paralyze their services and steal data
Three weeks ago anonymous officially declared thecyberwar” against Russia for his military invasion of Ukraine. Since then, this decentralized collective of cyber activists has managed to cripple multiple Kremlin websites, attack the systems of strategic companies, and steal and expose private data. Now they prepare for a “last push”. “We must hit them so hard that it paralyzes their entire system,” says an open letter attributed to this and other groups of hackers like GhostSec, Squad303 or SHDWSec.
In just the last few hours, they have claimed responsibility for computer attacks that have blocked access to the websites of entities as important as the FSB – the Russian intelligence services heirs to the KGB – the stock market, the international portal of the city of Moscow, the oil giant Rosneft or the analytical center of the government of Vladimir Putin.
Russian sites under attack [Tango Down]
Moscow
FSB
Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation
Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation#Anonymous #OpRussia pic.twitter.com/OLOMSNBvWr— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) March 15, 2022
These are the latest examples of a long list of computer incursions with which these cyber-guerrillas are dedicated to attacking the digital infrastructures of Russia and Belarus from their computers voluntarily. With this they seek to paralyze the Russian economy, block its military advance on the ground and deliver critical anti-war messages to Russian citizens that are impossible to broadcast in the Kremlin-controlled media without incurring prison sentences.
And that cyber war seems to be working. A study by the cybersecurity company Security Discovery to verify these attacks has analyzed 100 Russian databases and found that 92 of them are compromised.
Thus, in the last three weeks, access to the pages of the Ministry of Defense, the Duma -the Russian parliament-, the RT channel, the body that regulates the media (Roskomnadzor), the world gas giant Gazprom or private credit agencies, among many others. They have also hacked the broadcast of multiple television channels such as Russia 24, Channel 1 or Moscow 24 to show the Russians crude images of the war in Ukraine.
JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #ukraine. #OpRussia #OpKremlin #FckPutin #StandWithUkriane pic.twitter.com/vBq8pQnjPc
— Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) February 26, 2022
Cyber support to Ukraine
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Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has been requesting the support of the international cyber community to defend itself against Russian digital attacks, a constant since the invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and to attack to harm the Kremlin’s options in the current war.
The cyberactivists who support Ukraine, whether or not they are from the country, are organized in Telegram groups in which they share the next targets of their attacks, as if they were the homework that gives them Kyiv. These hacker groups have also created tools for people around the world without deep computer skills to send mass emails and WhatsApp messages to random Russian accounts and numbers. According to Squad303, more than 20 million messages have already been sent in what they consider to be the “largest and most successful cyber operation in history.”
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism