Ukraine conflict presents a minefield for Anonymous and hacktivists

[rhe5hu]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked a surge of volunteer hackers, or hacktivists, battling on the digital frontline with Moscow. Groups such as Anonymous, Squad303 and Cyber Partisan have carried out several cyberattacks against Russian targets over the past few weeks. But these highly publicised attacks against Russian sites also pose a danger.

Weeks after declaring an “electronic war” on the “Kremlin’s criminal regime”, Anonymous – a hacking collective – claimed to have hacked 2,500 Russian and Belarusian government, state media and other sites “in support of Ukraine”.

The claim, which was posted on Twitter on March 17, was impossible to verify. Corroborating assertions by a decentralised collective of anonymous hacktivists – which anyone can claim to be – is extremely difficult.

But one thing is certain: the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a resurgence of cybermilitancy and new recruits for Anonymous, which had its moment of glory in the early 2010s. "There has never been such a mobilisation of hacktivists at the international level to defend the same cause," said Athina Karatzogianni, a media and communications lecturer at the University of Leicester, in an interview with FRANCE 24.

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Calling ‘digital talents’ for an ‘IT army’
For those who know how to handle the digital weapon, hacking campaigns against Russian targets are used "to express solidarity – a bit like people who agree to host a Ukrainian refugee", Dennis-Kenji Kipker, a cybersecurity specialist at the University of Bremen, told FRANCE 24.

The sense of mission was fueled by a call, two days after Russia launched its invasion, by Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister and minister for digital transformation. In a February 26 post, Fedorov called for “digital talents” since Ukraine was “creating an IT army”.

Soon after the post was published on various platforms, the Anonymous collective "declared war" on Russian President Vladimir Putin. They were joined by several other groups, such as the Polish hacktivist movement Squad303 and the Belarusian Cyber Partisans, who say they are opponents of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

This international group of hackers against Moscow then multiplied its operations. There was a succession of “denial of service” attacks (DDoS attacks are used to make a site inaccessible by overloading the servers with requests) against the sites of the Kremlin, the FSB (the intelligence service) and the state RT television station.