Anonymous, a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective, has conducted numerous cyber-operations against Russia since February 2022 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
[1][2][3][4][5] In the hacking campaign named "Operation Samantha Smith", which is a reference to the 1980s child peace activist, they called for a referendum in Ukraine on whether to presumably follow the now-defunct Minsk Protocol or hand over the separatist-controlled territories to a UN peacekeeping administration.
Besides that, they also called for the creation of a "neutral grouping" of countries "wedged between NATO and Russia" that would include Ukraine, Finland, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.
According to Anonymous, the Modbus device was said to be a Schneider Electric's Modicon M251 logic controller, and that they were previously "playing nice" so not to give Russia a casus belli but because of the subsequent Russian invasion of Ukraine, Operation Samantha Smith was presumably deemed as a failure and Anonymous would start attacking Russian websites and systems as retaliation.
][8][9][10] Anonymous also leaked 200 GB worth of emails from the Belarusian weapons manufacturer Tetraedr, which provided logistical support for Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
[11] Anonymous also hacked into Russian TV channels and played Ukrainian music[12] through them and showed uncensored news of what was happening in Ukraine.
[13] They hacked into a Russian Center for the Protection of Monuments website (memorials.tomsk.ru) and uploaded three defacement pages adorned with the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.
[14] Following through their threats during Operation Samantha Smith, Anonymous had also hacked a Chinese SIMATIC programmable logic controller along with two Russian Modbus devices.
", while threatening that any further cyberattacks will be "precipitated by Russia's continued failure in recognizing the territorial aggression in itself is nothing but a relic of dark ages in the distant past.
"[14] Besides posting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's defiant speech against the invasion and a video calling for the creation of neutral grouping of countries between NATO and Russia into memorials.tomsk.ru, Anonymous announced that they had hacked a Russian Linux terminal and a gas control system in North Ossetia, while stating that they had almost caused an explosion in the latter, but did not because of a fast-acting human worker.
The hacking collective also added several hashtags and slogans, including "SlavaUkraini", "#OpRussia", "Putin #EpikFail", and "/r/opukraine" into the gas control system.
[17][18][19] A yacht allegedly belonging to Vladimir Putin was reportedly hacked by the group where they changed its call sign to “FCKPTN” and setting its target destination to “hell”.
On the website, Anonymous explains that the hacks are a message to Russia that it must "pay a huge price because of the shameful decision of the dictator Putin to attack an independent Ukraine by armed forces."
Anonymous further stated that "150 million Russians do not know the truth about the causes or course of the war in Ukraine" and are instead fed a steady stream of "Kremlin propaganda."
[24] In response to the seizure of Ukraine's Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant by Russia, Anonymous defaced the website of Rosatom and gained access to gigabytes of data which they intended to leak publicly.
"[35] The leak revealed a new online surveillance system tracking anti-war sentiment and other "threats" to Russian stability and the Putin regime.
[40] On April 4, 2022, DDoSecrets published more than 900,000 emails from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), which were hacked by the Anonymous aligned NB65.
[46] On April 15, 2022, DDoSecrets published roughly 400 gigabytes of emails from the Continent Express, a Russian travel agency, which was hacked by the Anonymous aligned NB65.
[55][56] On May 11, 2022, DDoSecrets published over 466 gigabytes of emails from the Nikolai M. Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO), which was hacked by Anonymous actors DepaixPorteur and B00daMooda.