"Since we declared 'electronic warfare' on the criminal regime that controls the Kremlin, Anonymous has hacked into more than 2,500 Russian and Belarusian sites, including government sites, media outlets, airports and banks."

Allegations, made Thursday March 17 on Twitter by the Anonymous TV account, impossible to verify.

Indeed, it is difficult to attribute computer attacks to a decentralized collective of anonymous hacktivists and to whom everyone can claim to belong.

But one thing is certain: the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to an upsurge in cybermilitancy and a new media youth for Anonymous, which had its heyday in the early 2010s.

"There has never been such a mobilization of hacktivists at the international level to defend the same cause", underlines Athina Karatzogianni, professor of communication at the University of Leicester who has studied the use of digital tools during cyberconflicts, contacted by France 24.

Inaccessible sites, millions of messages sent to Russians

For those who know how to handle digital weapons, hacking campaigns against Russian targets serve "to express their solidarity a bit like those who accept to host a Ukrainian refugee", believes Dennis-Kenji Kipker, lawyer and specialist. in cybersecurity at the University of Bremen, contacted by France 24.

Especially since these militant hackers feel like they are answering a call for help from the Ukrainian government.

"From the start of the war, Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister, called on all digital talents to fight on the cyber front. And it was not just limited to Ukrainians", recalls Athina Karatzogianni.

Shortly after, the Anonymous collective "declared war" on Vladimir Putin.

They have been joined by several other groups, such as the Polish hacktivist movement Squad303 or the Belarusian Cyber ​​Partisans, who present themselves as opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko.

This international of hackers against Moscow then multiplied the operations.

There has been a succession of denial of service attacks (Ddos attacks are used to make a site inaccessible by overloading the request servers) against the sites of the Kremlin, the FSB (the intelligence service) or even the site of the state television channel RT.

These activists have also succeeded in stealing large quantities of information from the servers of large groups such as Gazprom or even from the site of Roskomnadzor, the Russian media policeman.

They also took control for about ten minutes of several Russian news channels, such as Russia 24 or Channel One, in order to broadcast images of Russian bombings.

JUST IN: #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.

#OpRussia https://t.co/m5wvoDGNPh

— Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 (@YourAnonTV) March 10, 2022

Finally, Squad303, for its part, has developed a tool allowing anyone to send messages to Russian mobile phone numbers in order "to alert them to the reality of the conflict", assures this group of hacktivists. Poles, whose name refers to the 303 squadron of Polish fighters during the Second World War.

They assure that more than 20 million messages have thus been sent to Russians.

Too early to assess the impact of this hacktivism

But at a time when fighting is claiming many victims in Ukraine, these efforts in cyberspace may seem anecdotal.

A cyberattack against the Duma site to insert a pro-Ukrainian message on the home page will never have the same effect as a bomb dropped on a residential area in kyiv or Mariupol.

"It is certain that these operations will not change the face of the conflict, but they will have an impact", wants to believe Dennis-Kenji Kipker.

"It is still a little early to assess the role that these activists will have played in the conflict and above all, they represent only one piece of the puzzle of all the efforts - including economic sanctions - put in place to counter Russia" , says Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, specialist in hacktivism at the University of Portsmouth, contacted by France 24.

For example, "perhaps once analyzed, the data stolen by Anonymous will prove useful for the Ukrainian authorities", adds this expert.

And we must not neglect "the symbolic impact of these cyberattacks", believes Athina Karatzogianni.

They demonstrate that the Russian cyber army, often portrayed as one of the most experienced in the world, is not unbeatable.

"It is also a message sent to Ukrainians to show them that we are doing what we can to help them," adds Athina Karatzogianni.

And operations such as the hacking of Russian television channels "make it possible to beat the Russians on the ground of the information war which is supposed to be one of their strong points", estimates the specialist from the University of Leicester.

The successes of Anonymous and others seem to have given wings to these hacktivists.

Twitter is teeming with messages warning that ever larger operations are going to take place.

A rise in power which is not without risk.

The risk of "playing the game" of Vladimir Putin

"What happens if one of Anonymous' attacks damages critical infrastructure in Russia, such as a hospital?" Asks Dennis-Kenji Kipker.

"They have not received any training in cyber warfare, and there is always a risk of significant unexpected collateral damage", recognizes Athina Karatzogianni.

The authorities in the United Kingdom have also called on these "volunteers" of cyber warfare not to join the ranks of Anonymous for fear that they end up "unwittingly playing the game" of the master of the Kremlin, says the British Guardian.

"There is always a risk of escalation if Vladimir Putin can use the pretext of an attack on Anonymous by arguing that this is proof of the West's involvement in the conflict," said Vasileios Karagiannopoulos.

That's "the whole problem with collectives like Anonymous, because they haven't been empowered by anyone to speak on anyone's behalf. They don't have the right to 'declare wars' like they do. 'have done", sums up Dennis-Kenji Kipker.

In other words, since they don't represent anyone, the Kremlin will have no trouble portraying them as agents of the West.

"Especially if these hacktivists do damage to infrastructure that matters to Russians on a daily basis [such as railways, hospitals, etc.], which could strengthen Russian public support for Vladimir Putin," said the German researcher.

Instead of taking this risk of carrying out offensive actions that could go wrong, Anonymous and the other hacktivists "could help find the best ways to secure Ukrainian computer networks against attacks by Russian hackers", believes Dennis-Kenji Kipker.

This war could therefore become a turning point for hacktivism.

It can go down in history as the conflict that allowed this form of activism "to become known worldwide as an effective means of struggle", notes Vasileios Karagiannopoulos.

Or else these hackers will appear to be responsible for a new escalation of the most important conflict in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

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