Anonymous Hacktivists Breach Russian Databases, Leak 'Massive' Amounts of Data (cnbc.com) 80
"The Anonymous declaration of cyberwar was a top news story despite no evidence," writes cybersecurity specialist Jeremiah Fowler (an American who worked in Kyiv for the last 10 years — until fleeing in February to Poland). To investigate, Fowler performed a random sampling of 100 exposed Russian databases — and discovered that 92 of them had indeed been compromised. "Anti-Russian hackers used a similar script to the infamous 'MeowBot' that changed the name of folders and deleted the contents of the files. " (For example, renaming the folders to "putin_stop_this_war".)
And that was just the beginning, reports CNBC: Anonymous has claimed to have hacked over 2,500 Russian and Belarusian sites, said Fowler. In some instances, stolen data was leaked online, he said, in amounts so large it will take years to review. "The biggest development would be the overall massive number of records taken, encrypted or dumped online," said Fowler. Shmuel Gihon, a security researcher at the threat intelligence company Cyberint, agreed that amount of leaked data is "massive."
"We currently don't even know what to do with all this information, because it's something that we haven't expected to have in such a short period of time," he said....
The more immediate outcome of the hacks, Fowler and Gihon agreed, is that Russia's cybersecurity defenses have been revealed as being far weaker than previously thought.
Fowler's report argues that Anonymous has "rewritten the rules of how a crowdsourced modern cyberwar is conducted" — with the group also offering penetration testing to Ukraine, "finding vulnerabilities before Russia could exploit them." But in addition, Fowler writes, Anonymous's efforts have also "transformed into a larger operation that spread far beyond the Russian government, companies, or organizations, and included an information campaign aimed at Russian citizens."
Some examples: Hacking Printers — Russian censorship has blocked many inside the country from knowing the true scale of the war and Russian losses. Anonymous hacked printers across Russia and printed uncensored facts or anti-propaganda and pro-ukrainian messages. The group claims to have printed over 100,000 documents. This also includes barcode printers at grocery stores where prices were changed and product names were changed to anti-war or pro-Ukrainian slogans....
RoboDial, SMS, and Email Spam — Almost everyone on earth has received some form of spam in the form of a phone call, text, or email message. These usually try to sell a service or scam victims out of money. Now this same technology has been used to bypass Russian censorship and inform citizens of news and messages they are forbidden to learn on state sponsored propaganda channels. Anonymous affiliated Squad303 claimed to have sent over 100 million messages to Russian devices.
And that was just the beginning, reports CNBC: Anonymous has claimed to have hacked over 2,500 Russian and Belarusian sites, said Fowler. In some instances, stolen data was leaked online, he said, in amounts so large it will take years to review. "The biggest development would be the overall massive number of records taken, encrypted or dumped online," said Fowler. Shmuel Gihon, a security researcher at the threat intelligence company Cyberint, agreed that amount of leaked data is "massive."
"We currently don't even know what to do with all this information, because it's something that we haven't expected to have in such a short period of time," he said....
The more immediate outcome of the hacks, Fowler and Gihon agreed, is that Russia's cybersecurity defenses have been revealed as being far weaker than previously thought.
Fowler's report argues that Anonymous has "rewritten the rules of how a crowdsourced modern cyberwar is conducted" — with the group also offering penetration testing to Ukraine, "finding vulnerabilities before Russia could exploit them." But in addition, Fowler writes, Anonymous's efforts have also "transformed into a larger operation that spread far beyond the Russian government, companies, or organizations, and included an information campaign aimed at Russian citizens."
Some examples: Hacking Printers — Russian censorship has blocked many inside the country from knowing the true scale of the war and Russian losses. Anonymous hacked printers across Russia and printed uncensored facts or anti-propaganda and pro-ukrainian messages. The group claims to have printed over 100,000 documents. This also includes barcode printers at grocery stores where prices were changed and product names were changed to anti-war or pro-Ukrainian slogans....
RoboDial, SMS, and Email Spam — Almost everyone on earth has received some form of spam in the form of a phone call, text, or email message. These usually try to sell a service or scam victims out of money. Now this same technology has been used to bypass Russian censorship and inform citizens of news and messages they are forbidden to learn on state sponsored propaganda channels. Anonymous affiliated Squad303 claimed to have sent over 100 million messages to Russian devices.
Sounds familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Russia's cybersecurity defenses have been revealed as being far weaker than previously thought.
Just like their military. Incompetence and corruption from head to toe. Losing more people in five months than they did over nine years trying to occupy Afghanistan. Up to 12 generals killed, hundreds of other offices killed, over 1,000 tanks destroyed, thousands of other vehicles destroyed, losing their Black Sea flagship Moskva, and their entire navy in the area retreating to the shores of Russia because it can't defend itself from Ukrainian and western-supplied weapons.
Russia's military is the literal definition of a paper tiger. On paper it looked large and impressive. In reality it can't compete when going head-to-head with a real military opponent.
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Russian missiles on those ships have 1200+ mile range.
Russia does have old junk and corruption, yet they are still taking east Ukraine, because they don't care about soldier lives nor expending the soviet junk inventory.
I'm ever amused at those trying to mint social coin by putting down Russia but also ignoring alarming facts on the ground about war (Ukraine's boasting and exaggeration are not that) and for that matter Russian trade. Sanctions are backfiring and funding the war, Russia is making record pro
Re: Sounds familiar (Score:2)
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Sanctions are backfiring and funding the war, Russia is making record profits.
You believe Russian propaganda? All indications from everywhere NOT RUSSIA (and I don't mean solely the view of the United States) say otherwise. I challenge you to find a single piece of evidence and post it that talks about the strengthening Russian economy without it coming from a Russian outlet. Even China is now saying Russia is getting screwed. Keep burying your head in your Russian handler's arse I guess.
1200+ mile range means nothing when the boat is sunk.
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I think the GP is talking about petroleum. There they are making more money, but that money won't do them any good because the rest of their economy is cratering. I suppose they might be getting a better price for their grain, and the grain they've stolen from Ukraine. Their GDP is expected to shrink by quite a bit and will probably remain low for several years. And they have a brain drain, that too will hurt them going forward. And the West hasn't even given them the real weapons yet.
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I meant the West hasn't yet given Ukraine the real weapons.
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Russia and the Great Putini were relying before the war on infiltrating Ukraine with their agents. However, the agents suffered from the same disease the rest of the Russian military suffers, the lower guys tell the upper guys what they want to hear. So Putin put his faith on bullshit, now he's pissed.
The only weapon Russia has left is terror by raining missiles down on Ukraine cities. They figure that will demoralize the Ukrainians. Seems to me all that is doing is making the Ukrainians want to make all th
Re: Sounds familiar (Score:2)
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You should stop getting your "news" from RT.
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with the price of fuel jacked by sanctions, Russia making more money from fuel business now than before invasion, while all the European nations that can't get off Russia's fuel teat are getting screwed and funding the war to boot.
The only thing that would stop this disaster would be to give to Ukraine what Biden and Europe were too cowardly to give, aircraft and long range weapons, and maybe even some risky covert actions to blow shit up. That's called waging war, and Ukraine by itself waging war won't cu
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Russian missiles on those ships have 1200+ mile range. [...]
they are still taking east Ukraine, because they don't care about soldier lives nor expending the soviet junk inventory.
You just found why people mock them. That's the discrepancy between 1. their state marketing of a technological nation that boasts incredible weaponry on national television and 2. the observed fact that their war is based on swarms of untrained soldiers with junk equipment from another century.
It enables mockery because it exposes their inability to produce their designs in quantities, due to many factors like management incompetence, carelessness and corruption. They boast about being good and clever at something, yet their only way of winning is not being good and not being clever at it.
Sanctions are backfiring and funding the war, Russia is making record profits.
It's the uncertainty brought by the war that drives oil prices up, not the sanctions. Western oil companies have also been making record profits, meaning tax revenue (available to fund war) on the Western side has also increased.
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The first victim of war is the truth. Remember that before you make any bold statements.
The only ones who *might* know the truth are the Russian generals involved in the war, and their Ukrainian counterparts.
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The only ones who *might* know the truth are the Russian generals ....
ROTFLOL is about the only way to respond to that. If there's one thing that's been clearly demonstrated in this war it is that Russian generals live in a total fantasy land. So many of them have been killed not because they are brave and leading from the front but simply because they thought they controlled areas of Ukraine which they actually couldn't protect properly. Ukraine clearly has a better idea, but TBH even they are living in the fog of war. The people who actually know what's going on are the peo
Re: Sounds familiar (Score:1)
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"Russian missiles on those ships have 1200+ mile range." No: the Moskva carried P-500 or possibly P-1000 Vulcan anti-ship cruise missiles, max range 800 km (less than 500 miles), and several kinds of anti-aircraft missiles, the largest of which had a max range of maybe 400 km (250 miles). The remaining ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet are smaller, and presumably don't carry longer range missiles.
I'm ever amused at those trying to mint rubles by exalting Russia and also ignoring facts on the ground about
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you're ignoring Kalibr variants, they've already been used. watch the news more closely.
I'm ever amused at armchair virtue signaling war propaganda eaters
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You post unrelated things of Russian propaganda which I don't care about, I am posting facts not any Russian propaganda. Get on topic and quit being in denial. No wonder you post AC because your irrelevant bleatings are worthless. Get some balls and get an account, little manlette
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Russian missiles on those ships have 1200+ mile range.
With a 6 mile CEP?
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What's the use of all the money in the world if you can't buy the things you want / need?
Not saying that Russian economy is doing well (I think it's going downhill for them, no matter what the Russian news / propaganda says).
Just saying that even if they are getting piles of cash from fossil fuel, what can they use it on?
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They are growing trade in Asia so they won't need Europe. Electronics, vehicles and vehicle components for assembly besides the fuel deals.
Russia is already self-sufficient for food, building materials, textiles and fuel, as for true "need". Food, shelter and clothing a done deal.
Hah! Russia can't afford potato... (Score:2)
https://www.themoscowtimes.com... [themoscowtimes.com]
The same people with enough cash to buy out McDonald's restaurants already can't buy, beg or steal potatoes, promising them 'after harvest''.
Much self-sufficient. Very foreign trade. Gloriously improving.
Disregarding for the moment that most potatoes that do get harvested in Russia end up not as food but as Vodka...
Russian harvest, much like its real-estate industry depends on one resource it is quickly running out of.
Slave labour.
https://www.vice.com/en/articl... [vice.com]
Officers quickly realize that one of the best ways to supplement their income is to convert the only resource they have into cash.
They start renting out their conscripts as cheap day laborers.
The system of dedovshchina lends itself to this by putting the responsibility for running the business on the old-timers. The dedy force the dukhi to cough up money regularly.
Ragged soldiers begging for money are a frequent sight in Moscow, and conscripts are often âoerented outâ for use at construction sites.
Right now
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You're funny linking to temporary french fry shortage at their whackdonalds or whatever they call it that will end with autumn potato harvest. And now they have stolen food from Ukraine to boot. Other article is Russia being corrupt and full of brutes, what's new?
Reality is sanctions are making big money for Russia, they're an effete and wimpy way to do not much.
The only thing in this world that will stop Russia from taking the east of Ukraine it least (the big prize that will get them tens to one retur
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There you are again with that "Luckyo" living rent free in your pea-brain. I am not Luckyo.
Deficit is only 2% of GDP? that's amazing, better shape than say the USA. You should learn what terms mean before spewing your ignorance. That article is saying their economy is in great shape and deficit is lower than normal, and they have conditional budget surplus that will however be used in Q4.
Thanks for proving my point, Russia is fine.
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I can read, you have no comprehension. You are spewing in ignorance without a fact.
First off, deficits and surpluses in previous years, deficits positive:
2021: 0.72 percent
2020: negative 4.0 percent
2019: 1.93 percent
2018: 2.92 percent
So 2 percent is fine, get a clue.
No, they usually don't have money left over as above proves.
You have no credibility or point, shut up and just have people wonder if you are a fool, rather than typing bullshit and removing all doubt.
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I just posted the facts of Russian deficit for last four years, stop spewing your ignorance and stupidity. You have nothing but some fixation on this "Luckyo" character, your brain can't handle anything else.
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The Afghanistan that didn't last a day once the US told the US-and-coalition-trained "security" forces to fend for themselves? That Afghanistan?
The Afghanistan that didn't fight against its own people with anywhere near the effort it fought an external invader? Yes, *that* Afghanistan.
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Up to 12 generals killed, hundreds of other offices killed, [...]
Besides the loss of life and material, the political effect was devastating. Not only did Putin not reach his desired political goals, but the exercise backfired spectacularly: instead of stopping/reducing the influence of NATO in Europe and the world, his actions finally convinced both Sweden and Finland to join the organization. This was quite a reverse tour de force, especially considering Finland, which lived through more than 70 years of carefully tailoring their policies to appease Russia, [wikipedia.org] of self-cen
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The goal was that the whole deal is over by Tuesday, 5 days after the raid started. It was supposed to be a surprise coup where they waltz in, establish facts and get away with it. The press conference was already planned, news outlets were invited, the whole stage was set for Tuesday.
Yeah... unfortunately those damn Ukrainians shot back. How dare they?
To make matters worse, EU also didn't react as planned and actually gave Putin collectively the middle finger. With the sole exception maybe of the Hungarian
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Putins number one political goal is to have the 3 territories in east Ukraine. One was taken under Obama, the remaining two are in the process of being taken under the senile cowardly Biden. Thus far he's getting that.
What is backfiring are the sanctions, Russia making more money now than before the war.
Sweden and Finland already were doing massive military exercises with USA in 2021, de facto NATO already
Re: Sounds familiar (Score:2)
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Germany occupied France for about 4 years in WW2, some good things take time to come to fruition.
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Oh how often does RT have to tell you, the Moskva was not sunk by Ukraine, it's just that the Russian Navy can't sail ships in storms that reach Beaufort 2!
Sorry that doesn't count (Score:2)
Hacking into the Kremlin's server and dumping /dev/urandom through a cyrillic translator does not count as exfiltrating Vladimir Putin's strategic plans for Russia, however much it looks like something he's written himself.
average citizen (Score:2)
I'm not sure that inconveniencing and annoying the average citizen is going to have a positive effect. If you have really no power to make changes then lots of repeated messages is just annoying and is not going to win friends or support.
below the sergeants are the guys with the missiles (Score:2)
Note than one dictator has been overthrown by the populous. Ultimately that's where the power is - always. Putin would have nothing to eat if a baker didn't bake for him - or his bread was "accidentally" contaminated. In particular, the ordinary, low-rank soldiers have ordinary tanks.
Below the military general, below their colonels, below the the lieutenants, the sergeant majors, are the ordinary guys who have to actually carry the should-fired missiles on their shoulder. If the guys who actually have the m
*MORE* than one dictator (Score:2)
That was supposed to be *MORE* than one dictator has been overthrown. Not "note that one".
Anyway, dick tators tend to die when they least expect it.
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Does it count as being paranoid if they really are out to get you?
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Atrocities will be committed by any side in a war. War never makes the best qualities of people come to the front but the worst. What matters is scale. Have the US committed war crimes in WW2? Yeah. Not only in the pacific, google "Third army war memorial" for an example. And I think I needn't point out Soviet war crimes like the Katyn massacre.
But how does this hold up against organized terror against civilians by the German occupational force? Or gainst the organized, industrial annihilation of millions?
I
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I'd say the majority of Russians know Putin is a liar and therefore such messages can exploit that.
There's not much evidence of it but considering Putin has blacked out all media except the ones he controls, maybe things would be worse.
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I wouldn't be so sure about that.
The majority of Russians don't really have any access to the internet. What they know is what their news tell them, and what they tell them is pretty much what Putin wants them to hear. Certainly some of smarter people will understand that reality and news don't match up, but if they're smart enough to see that, they probably are also smart enough to know that questioning that is bad for your health.
Also, don't underestimate the willingness of people to believe a narrative t
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I'm not sure that inconveniencing and annoying the average citizen is going to have a positive effect. If you have really no power to make changes then lots of repeated messages is just annoying and is not going to win friends or support.
Dictators always have near 100% approval rating.
Until the public dissatisfaction grows to the point where people realize it's safe to disagree, then they have near 0% approval rating.
It's hard to predict where that inflection point is, but more likely than not Putin is going to be hovering close to 0% within the next few years.
Of course, he'll probably pass away before then.
Potemkin security... (Score:4, Funny)
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Hope it's a Potemkin gilded turd, then it would be as hollow as the rest.
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meanwhile even this year USA hitches ride on Russian craft to IIS.
Someone's manned space program was a potemkin for years all right...
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Re: Robodialing (Score:1)
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You must be an old guy, cuz I think I'm the only one here who got what you said, and I'm an old guy. Anyway, Newer And Better!
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Uh, no, that is not what I was referring to (which means you're *not* old). todmaniac was paraphrasing an old laundry detergent commercial from the early 1960s.
A Common Weakness (Score:3)
Something shared by all dictatorial regimes seems to be their reliance on police / paramilitary forces to quell popular dissent. These forces acting together can be used effectively against demonstrations even when heavily outnumbered. However the individuals that make up these forces usually live within the communities they oppress. This makes me wonder why the personal information of these people (names, addresses, mobile numbers etc.) does not seem to be a high value target. After all, it's one thing beating up innocent protesters along with hundreds of your thug friends, quite another when those same people know who you are and where you live.
Anonymous, really? (Score:2)
Can anybody actually tell if these aren't just NATO "Cybercommand" [cringe] bragging online and pretending to be script kiddies?
I don't see any reason to believe either claim.
Warmongering Cyber BS (Score:2)
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