Hacker Group Anonymous Vows to Disrupt Russia’s Internet — RT Websites Become ‘Subject of Massive DDoS Attacks’

The international hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has vowed to attack Russian government websites over the recent Ukraine invasion. So far Anonymous says that it hacked the Russian Ministry of Defense database and various state-operated television channels in Russia. Additionally, a spokesperson from Russia Today (RT) said that after Anonymous’ recent statement, RT websites were inundated with DDoS attacks.

The decentralized international collective Anonymous wants to troll Vladimir Putin and the Russian government after the country invaded Ukraine last week. “Russia may be using bombs to drop on innocent people, but Anonymous uses lasers to kill Russian government websites,” Anonymous (@youranonnews) told its 7.6 million Twitter followers on February 26.

Additionally, Anonymous shared a tweet from Netblocks that described a large-scale cyberattack against the Kremlin State Duma and Ministry of Defense. The tweet published by Netblocks states:

Confirmed: Various Russian government websites including the Kremlin, State Duma and Ministry of Defense are again down, with real-time network data showing impact to FSO networks consistent with previous cyberattacks. The incident comes as Russia continues to invade Ukraine.

Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard website 4chan. Traditionally, Anonymous members release videos of an individual wearing a Guy Fawkes mask from the film “V for Vendetta,” and the group uses voice changers or text-to-speech in the published videos. “We [Anonymous] just happen to be a group of people on the Internet who need—just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that we wouldn’t be able to do in regular society,” the group’s motto says.

Reports indicate that Anonymous posted pro-Ukrainian patriotic music with warfare images on the state-operated Russian TV channels. Furthermore, the same report highlights that the news company Russia Today (RT) openly discussed the Anonymous threat after a massive DDoS attack.

“After the statement by Anonymous, RT’s websites became the subject of massive DDoS attacks from some 100 million devices, mostly based in the [United States],” an RT spokesperson said. Additionally, bitcoin advocate Max Keiser is being called out on social media for deleting mass quantities of RT-related tweets.

Because Anonymous is so informal and it’s difficult to verify whether or not the collective’s attacks are legitimate, many believe the group is simply smoke and mirrors. Anonymous has no leadership or hierarchy and because of the anonymity practices, it’s difficult to attribute any actions to the group or individual participants. However, that hasn’t stopped Anonymous from claiming to be behind significant cyberattacks during the last decade.

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What do you think about Anonymous vowing to attack the Russian government with cyber threats? Do you think Anonymous was behind the DDoS attacks against RT websites and the Russian Ministry of Defense database? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.