Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused the world to react. In addition to economic sanctions by the West, the Russian aggression has also produced a new opponent for Putin: the hacker collective Anonymous which publicly declared "cyber war" on the Russian government last Thursday evening via a Twitter statement.
In the days since, more than 300 Russian websites have been attacked, with incident reports posted on Twitter practically every hour. The group has claimed credit for several cyber incidents including hacks to official government websites, banks and state-run Russian media outlets which have been deliberately overloaded and inaccessible for days.
In a recent interview with the Swiss news portal, Nau, Nicolas Mayencourt, founder and global CEO of Dreamlab Technologies, stated: "Anonymous is not an organisation but rather a loose association of very capable hacktivists. They have already carried out many successful attacks. They’ve hacked the Russian Ministry of Defence database, publishing sensitive data which is still being evaluated, but that can definitely harm Russia."
Additionally, Russian state TV channels were hacked on Sunday, posting pro-Ukraine content including patriotic songs and images from the invasion instead of state propaganda. “With these take-overs, the Russian population is able to see more and more the Western views as well as the actual situation in Ukraine which could lead to more Russians opposing the war".
“There’s also the possibility of further "hardcore attacks". These could involve attacking information systems of the Russian army in Ukraine, for example, or even the power supply in Russia itself”, Mayencourt continued.
For Nicolas, it is clear that the current cyber war could also have an impact in Switzerland. "Cyber is the foundation of the digitalised society and these foundations are very weak. Critical infrastructures are insufficiently protected.”
Read the full article (German only) here: https://www.nau.ch/news/europa/ukraine-konflikt-das-sind-die-anonymous-hacker-die-putin-furchtet-66118769
