The Anonymous and RUSSIA.

1. https://uii.io/Oneanomiusandrussia
The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since
declaring "cyber war" on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine.
Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and
plans.
https://uii.io/Oneanomiusandrussia
Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on
Russian TV networks stands out.
The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted
with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the
conflict.
The video began circulating on the 26 February and was shared by Anonymous social media
accounts with millions of followers. "JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been
hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine," one post
read.
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It quickly racked up millions of views.
Image of war destruction on TV
Image caption,
The video was sent to a woman in the US, Eliza, by her father in Russia
The stunt has all the hallmarks of an Anonymous hack - dramatic, impactful and easy to
share online. Like many of the group's other cyber-attacks it was also extremely hard to
verify.
But one of the smaller groups of Anonymous hackers said that they were responsible, and
that they took over TV services for 12 minutes.
The first person to post the video was also able to verify it was real. Eliza lives in the US but
her father is Russian and called her when his TV shows were interrupted. "My father called
me when it happened and said, 'Oh my God, they're showing the truth!' So I got him to
record it and I posted the clip online. He says one of his friends saw it happen too."
Rostelecom, the Russian company that runs the hacked services did not respond to
requests for comment.

2. The hackers justified their actions saying innocent Ukrainians were being massacred. "We
will intensify the attacks on the Kremlin, if nothing is done to restore peace in Ukraine," they
added.
Anonymous says it has also taken down Russian websites and stolen government data, but
Lisa Forte, a partner at cyber-security company Red Goat says most of these attacks have
so far been "quite basic".
Hackers have mostly been using DDoS attacks, where a server is overwhelmed by a flood of
requests, she said. These are relatively simple to carry out and only take websites offline
temporarily.
"But the TV hack is incredibly creative," she said, "and I would think quite difficult to pull off."
As the United States deals with widespread civil unrest across dozens of cities,
"hacktivist" group Anonymous has returned from the shadows.
The hacker collective was once a regular fixture in the news, targeting those it
accused of injustice with cyber-attacks.
After years of relative quiet, it appears to have re-emerged in the wake of violent
protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, promising to expose the
"many crimes" of the city's police to the world.
However, it's not easy to pin down what, if anything, is genuinely the mysterious
group's work.
Who are Anonymous?
The "hacktivist" collective has no face, and no leadership. Its tagline is simply "we are
legion", referring to its allegedly large numbers of individuals.
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Without any central command structure, anyone can claim to be a part of the group.
This also means that members can have wildly different priorities, and there is no
single agenda.

3. But generally, they are activists, taking aim at those they accuse of misusing power.
They do so in very public ways, such as hijacking websites or forcing them offline.
Their symbol is a Guy Fawkes mask, made famous by Alan Moore's graphic novel V
for Vendetta, in which an anarchist revolutionary dons the mask to topple a corrupt
fascist government.
Alan Moore, V for Vendetta author, on Anonymous' rise
Inside the minds of the 'hacktivists'
Violence erupts across US on sixth day of protests
What actions have they taken?
Various forms of cyber-attack are being attributed to Anonymous in relation to the
George Floyd protests.
First, the Minneapolis police department website was temporarily taken offline over
the weekend in a suspected Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
This is an unsophisticated but effective form of cyber-attack that floods a server with
data until it can't keep up and stops working - in the same way that shopping
websites can go offline when too many people flood it to snap up high-demand
products.