The hacking group Anonymous has leaked a huge trove of hacked Russian government files as it vows to keep fighting Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The notorious collective of hackers vowed to keep targeting the Kremlin until Russia ends its “aggression” against Ukraine.
Government institutions and Russian companies were breached in the cyberattack.
The data dump of over 700GB of files includes more than 200,000 emails from the Russian Ministry of Culture, a government body that has oversight over censorship, archives, and art.
The vigilante hackers also hijacked emails and data from the oil and gas company Aerogas as part of ongoing attempts to infiltrate and disrupt the Russian war effort.
The hacked files have been published on Substack.
Anonymous has already launched a series of cyberattacks in retaliation for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Previous hacking attacks include a data leak of Russian soldiers and takeovers of state-controlled TV.
It has now insisted that it will continue hacking and releasing confidential information until Russia withdraws from its offensive.
In a tweet, the group wrote: “The hacking will continue until Russia stops their aggression.”
It first announced it was “officially in cyber war against the Russian government” on the day Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Since then, the hacking collective has been involved in various attacks in an effort to spread information about what Russia still says is a “special military operation.”
New press censorship legislation in Russia is severely hampering transparency about what is actually happening within the Kremlin.
The “fake news” laws mean that anyone found guilty of disseminating “false information” about the Russian forces can face extreme penalties, including a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Last month Network Battalion 65 or “NB65,” which is affiliated with Anonymous, claimed to have shut down Russia’s space agency so that Putin “no longer had control over spy satellites.”
The group said it had downloaded and deleted confidential files related to the space agency’s satellite imaging and Vehicle Monitoring System.
However, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, denied the claim and called Anonymous “scammers and petty swindlers.”
Earlier this month, Anonymous also leaked the personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, disclosing personal information such as names, date of birth, addresses, unit affiliation, and passport numbers.
“All soldiers participating in the invasion of Ukraine should be subjected to a war crime tribunal,” the hackers wrote on Twitter.
Anonymous also claimed it had targeted Russia’s central bank and stole 35,000 files, as well as hacking unsecured printers across Russia to print out “anti-propaganda” messages about the Ukrainian invasion.
A member of the collective, who goes by @DepaixPorteur on Twitter, tweeted:
“We have been printing anti-propaganda and tor installation instructions to printers all over [Russia] for 2 hours, and printed 100,000+ copies so far.
“15 people working on this op as we speak.
“We’re currently launching a printer attack on 156 [Russian] printers.
“Already over 40,000+ copies.”
Only last week Anonymous claimed it had also managed to leak more than 900,000 Russian state media emails.
Anonymous has previously targeted groups including the Ku Klux Klan and Islamic extremists.
Members are known as “Anons” and are distinguished by their Guy Fawkes masks.
In July last year, the collective warned Tesla founder Elon Musk that they planned to target him after saying he wields too much power over the cryptocurrency markets.
#Anonymous message to Vladimir Putin pic.twitter.com/eIy9YpDvM5
— Anonymous (@LatestAnonPress) February 27, 2022
