Anonymous Hacks Russian Government Websites, Waging 'Cyber War' Against Moscow

Anonymous, the infamous hacker group, has claimed responsibility for a series of outages among Russia's government websites, saying that it is in a "cyber war" against Moscow and is currently taking over Ukraine.

The cyberattacks and waging of cyber war come as Russia's invasion of Ukraine passed its 100th-day mark and with Moscow renewing its strikes on the nation's capital, Kyiv. The hacker group allegedly targeted the Russian Ministry of Construction, Housing, and Utilities website. Various reports said that any attempt to open the website through an internet search would lead to a "Glory to Ukraine" sign in the Ukrainian language.

Anonymous' "Cyber War" Against Russia

There have been many massive cyberattacks from Russian-sponsored threat actors that occurred on the day that Ukraine was invaded. The situation at the time forced Kyiv to assemble an "IT army." It was also endorsed by Ukrainian officials as it sought help from technology leaders to fight cyber attacks.

At the time, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, posted a tweet announcing the creation of the IT army. The official noted that the nation was in desperate need of digital talents to fight its aggressors as they continue to fight on the cyber front, as per the Indian Express.

The retaliation against the cyberattacks began as early as the day of the invasion on Feb. 24 with Anonymous on the front lines against the Kremlin. Within a day, the hacker group claimed to have brought down several government websites, including the state news agency RT News.

In the wake of the announcement, the group also said it was behind leaking the database of the Russian Ministry of Defense, intercepting Russian military communications, and hacking Russian TV channels to broadcast the "reality of what is happening in Ukraine."

According to the Republic World, one of the latest Anonymous attacks has taken down the website of Russia's Internal Affairs Ministry in Belarus. Other targets include the websites of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Justice, the National

Legal Information Center, the State Customs Committee, and the State Committee.

Targeting Government Websites

In a Twitter post, Anonymous took responsibility for the attack on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and said that they would let it reopen when Russia learns how to treat its citizens properly. An Anonymous-affiliated collective group, Spid3r, said that it has never supported any government official and noted that it has always stood by the people.

The situation also comes as Anonymous claims it successfully acquired 5,030 emails, addresses, and phone numbers from the compromised database of Moscow-headquartered Sberbank, which is a majority state-owned banking and financial services company. It has a presence in several European nations, mostly in the post-Soviet space.

Western sanctions imposed over Russia's war on Ukraine have affected its operations and at the end of February, Sberbank Europe said it was leaving the European market. Anonymous also said before that it had published 28 gigabytes of documents belonging to the Central Bank of Russia, including some of the monetary authority's "secret agreements," Bitcoin News reported.