Earlier this week, a Twitter account claiming affiliation with the nebulous hacking group Anonymous claimed that it had hacked Russia’s central bank and planned to release 35,000 documents documenting ‘secret agreements’ over the next 48 hours. The hackers’ group declared cyberwar on Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia a month ago. In late February, Anonymous posted a video on Twitter declaring: ‘Soon you will feel the wrath of the world’s hackers’.
According to the organization, they have fulfilled their threat so far. A group of hackers claiming to be Anonymous said it hacked Russian state TV networks and temporarily halted programming in order to show footage of Ukrainian buildings being attacked to the BBC earlier this week.
The Russian government maintains tight control over its media, while Putin passed a law earlier this month that makes reporting that contradicts the government’s official views on the Ukraine conflict illegal. Western countries have increased sanctions against Russia in an attempt to cut it off from international trade and the international banking system after the war against Ukraine, but Anonymous has taken a more unconventional stance towards the country.
In a tweet, it urged organizations that continued to operate in Russia, ‘We once again call on companies that continue to operate in Russia: Immediately stop your activity in Russia if you feel sorry for the innocent people who are being massacred violently in Ukraine. Your time is running out. We do not forgive. We do not forget’.
Additionally, the tweet included several logos of various companies, including Acer, Lenovo, Emirates, and AstraZeneca. However, the account also retweeted a post alleging the Central Bank Of Russia had been hacked, with screenshots attached. The bank’s press department later told Russian news agency TASS that information regarding a hacking attack on any of the regulator’s systems is false.
Members of the group also offered Russian forces $52,000 in Bitcoin if they abandoned their tanks earlier this month. The conflict in Ukraine is increasingly being fought online as it drags on. Squad 303 was a gang of Polish hackers who created a website that allowed individuals to send SMS messages to Russian phone numbers informing them of the situation in Ukraine. According to reports, the group claims to have sent more than 20 million SMS and WhatsApp messages.
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