Hackers group 'Anonymous' beat the drums of war against Russia, and claimed to have succeeded in shutting down a number of Russian government websites.
This claim was made by Anonymous via the Twitter account @YourAnonOne, which claims to represent the group of hackers. This morning, they officially launched a cyber war with the Russian government.
The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government. #Anonymous #Ukraine
— Anonymous (@YourAnonOne) February 24, 2022
One of the "victims" of the Anonymous cyberattack is the RT News website, which is claimed to be a Russian propaganda news site. Other sites that also appear to be victims of this attack are the sites of the Russian government, the Kremlin, the Duma, the Ministry of Defense. There are sites that are completely inaccessible, but there are also those that just slow down.
The #Anonymous collective has taken down the website of the #Russian propaganda station RT News.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonOne) February 24, 2022
The account also claims to have succeeded in shutting down the internet service provider (ISP) Com2Com, PTT-Teleport Moscow, RELCOM, and Sovam Teleport. This step they took to resist the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Anonymous is currently involved in operations against the Russian Federation. Our operations target the Russian government. It is possible that the private sector will also be affected," wrote the @YourAnonNews account, which has 6.4 million followers.
"Although this account cannot claim to all Anonymous collectives, we can report the facts of Anonymous' collective actions against the Russian Federation. We want Russian citizens to understand that we know it is difficult to issue statements against a dictator for fear of reprisals," he continued.
These hackers used the hashtags #OpRussia or #OpKremlin to show off their actions to beat up Russian websites. Just like when they launched various attacks to attack ISIS with the hashtag #OpISIS.
Even in a video posted on February 15, long before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation into Ukraine, hackers threatened to "hostage" industrial control systems if the crisis escalated.