The cyber-famous Anonymous hacker group has declared war on Russia. They have succeeded in overthrowing several important Russian websites.
One of them is Russian Today, a Russian government-sponsored news service company. Then the official websites of the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense were inaccessible for a long time due to massive DDoS attacks.
Anonymous claims they managed to break into the database of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Later, Russia's state television channel was infiltrated with some pro-Ukrainian content, including patriotic songs and actual photos of the battlefields in Ukraine.
"It's difficult to directly attribute this incident to Anonymous. But Anonymous have a track record of carrying out this kind of activity and within their capabilities," said security expert Jamie Collier of cyber company Mandiant.
In the past, Anonymous hackers often made news because they had attacked CIA systems, ISIS to the church of Scientology. The US government had imprisoned several of its members, but rose again after the death of George Floyd. Former members of Anonymous say that one of their basic tenets is anti-bullying.
The Russian Today confirmed that the problems that occurred on their site were masterminded by Anonymous. They said the attacks were mostly carried out from the United States.
"Following a statement from Anonymous, the Russian Today website was subjected to a massive DDoS attack from about 100 million devices, mostly based in the US," they said, quoted by the Guardian.
In contrast, the attack on Ukraine from Russia has so far turned out to be less vicious. Ukraine itself has formed an army of hackers to defend itself from cyber attacks or to carry out attacks on Russia.