Vratislav Holub Practically the whole world is reacting to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Everyone tries to help as best as they can. While states are imposing economic sanctions, private companies are withdrawing from Russia, for example, or people are offering humanitarian aid of all kinds. The anonymous hacker group Anonymous also came with some help. Indeed, this group has declared a cyber war on Russia and is trying to "help" in all available ways. During the duration of the invasion, they also celebrated several interesting successes, when, for example, they managed to disable Russian servers or get access to interesting materials. Let's therefore quickly summarize the achievements of Anonymous so far.
Quick reply from Anonymous
The invasion started in the early hours of Thursday, February 24, 2022. Although the Russian Federation bet on the element of surprise, Anonymous practically succeeded reply immediately with a series of DDoS attacks, thanks to which they took several Russian servers out of service. A DDoS attack consists in the fact that literally hundreds of thousands of stations/computers start contacting one server with some requests, thereby completely overwhelming it and ensuring its downfall. As such, the server obviously has its limits, which can be overcome in this way. This is how Anonymous managed to shut down the website of RT (Russia Today), known for spreading Kremlin propaganda. Some sources talk about bringing down the websites of the Kremlin, the Ministry of Defense, the government and others.
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However, the Anonymous group was just getting started with the above-mentioned takedown of some websites. Two days later, on Saturday, February 26, 2022, she performed a masterpiece. Not only did it bring down the websites of a total of six institutions, including the censorship agency Roskomnadzor, but also she hacked the broadcast on state television stations. On those outside the traditional programs, the Ukrainian national anthem was played. At first glance, this is an intervention directly into the black. Despite this, the Russian authorities tried to refute the fact that it was a hacker attack.
Decommissioning of satellites for espionage purposes
Subsequently, on the night of March 1-2, 2022, the Anonymous group pushed the imaginary limits again. Disrupting state television may seem like the pinnacle of what's possible, but these guys have taken it one step further. According to their statements, they managed to disable the systems of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, which are absolutely crucial for the Russian Federation for controlling spy satellites. Without them, they logically do not have such detailed information about the movement and deployment of Ukrainian forces, which put them at a significant disadvantage in the ongoing invasion. They simply had no idea where they might encounter resistance.
JUST IN: Hacking group 'NB65', affiliated with #Anonymous has shut down the Control Center of the Russian Space Agency 'Roscosmos'. #Russia has no more control over their own Spy-Satelites. #Oprussia#OpKremlin #FreeUkraine #FckPutin pic.twitter.com/1iZBDN48rw
- Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) March 1, 2022
Of course, it is no longer a surprise that the Russian side once again denied such an attack. Even on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, confirmed the attack. He calls for the punishment of hackers, but he also slightly supports the local narrative about the impenetrability of Russian systems. According to him, Russia did not lose control over its spy satellites even for a second, as their security system was allegedly able to cope with all the attacks. Anyway, Anonymous on They shared the images on Twitter screens directly from the mentioned systems.
Hacking the censorship agency Roskomnadzor and publishing secret documents
The Anonymous movement managed a majestic feat only yesterday, i.e. March 10, 2022, when they managed to hack the notorious censorship agency Roskomnadzor. Specifically, the database of the office that is directly responsible for all censorship in the country was breached. The breakout itself doesn't mean much. But the crucial thing is that the hackers gained access to almost 364 thousand files with a total size of 820 GB. These are supposed to be classified documents, and some of the files are also relatively recent. According to timestamps and other aspects, some files date from March 5, 2022, for example.
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What we will learn from these documents is unclear for now. Since it is a huge number of files, it will understandably take some time before someone goes through them completely, or until they find something interesting. According to the media, this latest known achievement of Anonymous has huge potential.
Hackers on the side of Russia
Unfortunately, Ukraine is also reeling under the fire of hackers. Several hacker groups have joined Russia's side, including UNC1151 from Belarus or Accounts. The group SandWorm joined this pair. By the way, according to some sources, this is directly financed by the Russian Federation and is behind a number of attacks on Ukraine that have taken place in recent years.
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To think that there is some anonymous group behind most of the activity is really naive. How do you tell if these guys are hacking enthusiasts and not trained by a professional Western organization hiding behind Anonymous. 😂