Anonymous is claiming to have hacked Roskomnadzor, Russia's media censorship agency, amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
This allowed the hacking group to get hold of more than 360,000 files, which are now supposedly open to the public.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday, March 10, Anonymous TV wrote in a tweet to their more than 300,000 followers on the platform: "Anonymous has successfully breached and leaked the database of Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring #Russian mass media, releasing to the public over 360K files."
Roskomnadzor is the Russian federal agency responsible for the monitoring and censorship of Russian media.
In a statement explaining their latest breach, the group said: "Roskomnadzor's activities are always a matter of public interest to the people of Russia and to the world. Their recent actions have only emphasized this."
The statement continued: "Roskomnadzor has given instructions about what can be said and ordered media outlets to delete stories that call Russia's invasion of Ukraine an Invasion. In response to Facebook's fact-checking Russia's statements about the war, Roskomnadzor began restricting access to Facebook before later blocking it.
"Roskomnadzor also threatened to block access to Russian Wikipedia over their article about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This follows an established history of similar actions in the past."
This comes after Anonymous appeared to declare a "cyber war" against Russian President Vladimir Putin's government after he launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The YourAnonNews Twitter account, which boasts more than 6 million followers, made the bold declaration, saying that Anonymous is "currently involved in operations against the Russian Federation."
Referring to Putin as a "dictator", they empathized with the Russian people and their inability to speak out against their president for fear of punishment.
"We, as a collective want only peace in the world," the group continued. "We want a future for all of humanity. So, while people around the globe smash your internet providers to bits, understand that it's entirely directed at the actions of the Russian government and Putin."
