- Anonymous hackers have reportedly taken control of Russia’s Central Bank’s website, after breaching the bank’s network and leaking sensitive documents. The group, which calls itself “Loyal Citizen,” leaked 35,000 files, including personal data and internal emails, The New York Times reported.
- The group promised to expose more documents, as well as information about Russian officials’ offshore bank accounts, in the coming days. The Central Bank of Russia is the country’s equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Anonymous Exploits Russia’s Central Bank
- It’s been precisely a month since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his “special military operation” against its Eastern neighbour Ukraine, and the Russian central bank has been reeling. In the space of a few days, hackers stole about 30 million central bank accounts, and the most recent hack, which took place Thursday, resulted in a loss of about $81 million.
- Since then, the Kremlin has used the threat of a military intervention to force a series of energy deals with its former foe, including the privatization of a strategically important oil company in return for access to vast untapped reserves.
Anonymous Against Foreign Companies
- Although the number of companies leaving Russia continues to grow, there’re still quite a few that have refused to do so. Among them are companies from the U.S., which have been using their economic clout and political influence to pressure Russian firms to abandon their homeland.
- In response, anonymous hackers, who call themselves The Guardians, have been targeting the personal data of these companies and their employees. The goal of the attacks, which have been dubbed is to demonstrate that even if a company is based abroad, they are still subject to the will of the Russian people.
Conclusion
- Anonymous hackers have reportedly broken into the servers of Russia’s Central Bank, and have threatened to release thousands of secret documents should authorities attempt to block the release. The attack appears to be the latest in a series of similar hacktivist actions taken by the loosely-organized collective.
- In the past, Anonymous has launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, made threats against companies and organizations, and attacked the websites of companies and governments that have been deemed to be acting against the will of the people.
- The Central Bank hack follows a report earlier this week that an Anonymous-affiliated group had seized control of a server belonging to the Russian government’s Tinkoff bank.
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