Russian Arbitration Courts Hacked In Apparent Ukraine War Protest

Courts of arbitration in several Russian regions and Moscow have been hacked in an apparent protest over Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.


Courts of arbitration in Moscow as well as in the regions of Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Primorye, Sakhalin, the Jewish autonomous region, Tyva, and Yakutia on March 16 carried a link to an online poster calling for the impeachment of President Vladimir Putin.

No group claimed responsibility for the cyberattack.

Several Russian ministries and other state entities have been hacked since Russia launched the invasion on February 24.

Websites hit last week carried an image with a small Ukrainian flag in the corner depicting a sole individual stopping a tank juxtaposed with an image with a small Russian flag showing of a group of protesters running from a police officer wielding a truncheon. Between the two images was one word -- "Why?"

In an earlier incident, Russian television channels were hacked on March 7 and had their programming interrupted with coverage of the war in Ukraine by independent broadcasters Current Time and Dozhd TV, which have been blocked in Russia.

Twitter accounts historically associated with Anonymous, the amorphous online activist community that first grabbed global attention about a decade ago, claimed it was behind the hacker attack on March 7.

Before that, Anonymous said it hacked several Russian media outlets, including the state TASS news agency, Kommersant, Izvestia, Fontanka, Forbes, and RBK.

On February 26, the official website of the Kremlin, was down following reports of denial-of-service attacks on various other Russian government and state media websites.

Anonymous claimed it was behind that hacking attack as well.

Russian authorities have intensified pressure on media outlets, threatening them for their reporting about the invasion on topics such as the heavy resistance being put up by Ukrainian forces despite Russia's overwhelming military power.

Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has ordered media to only publish information provided by official sources. It has also forbidden media organizations from describing Russia's unprovoked actions as an invasion or a war, instead insisting they are called a "special military operation."