Anonymous has vowed to continue hacking Russia until the country ends its ‘aggression’ against Ukraine.
The hacking collective has heavily criticised Vladimir Putin’s invasion, having launched a number of cyber attacks on the country in retaliation, including a data leak of Russian soldiers and takeovers of state-controlled television.
And it doesn’t plan on stopping its efforts anytime soon, saying it won't cease until Russia does. The group tweeted yesterday, 11 April: “The hacking will continue until Russia stops their aggression."
Transparency regarding what is actually happening within the Kremlin has been severely hampered by new press censorship legislation in Russia. The 'fake news' laws mean that anyone found guilty of disseminating 'false information' about the Russian forces can face extreme penalties, including a prison sentence of up to 15 years, according to Reuters.
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On 24 February, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Anonymous announced it was ‘officially in cyber war against the Russian government’. Since then, the collective has been involved in various hacking attacks, in a bid to help spread information about what Russia still says is a ‘special military operation’.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the group had leaked the personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, disclosing personal information such as names, date of birth, addresses, unit affiliation and passport numbers.
"All soldiers participating in the invasion of Ukraine should be subjected to a war crime tribunal,” the hacktivist collective said on Twitter.
Anonymous then claimed to have hacked into unsecured printers across Russia in order to print out 'anti-propaganda' messages about the Ukrainian invasion.
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A member of the collective, who goes by @DepaixPorteur on Twitter, tweeted: "We have been printing anti-propaganda and tor installation instructions to printers all over [Russia] for 2 hours, and printed 100,000+ copies so far. 15 people working on this op as we speak.
"We’re currently launching a printer attack on 156 [Russian] printers. Already over 40,000+ copies."
Last week, Anonymous also claimed it had managed to leak more than 900,000 Russian state media emails.
Emma Best, co-founder of journalistic organisation Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), shared a tweet in which she claimed the organisation had received data from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) – a state-owned broadcaster based in Moscow – and would release it 'in the near future'.
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A Twitter account associated with Anonymous, which uses the handle @YourAnonNews, later shared Best's tweet after the data was made public and encouraged people to 'grab the torrent and translate the emails'.
"Have fun," they continued, adding: "F**k fascists. F**k totalitarians. F**k insecure autocrats. Have fun in your part of further owning these pricks. Explore and share!"
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Topics: World News, Russia
