Anonymous hacks Russia’s media censorship agency and leaks 364,000 documents

Anonymous argues that the agency’s activities are a matter of public interest ‘to the people of Russia’

Anonymous has hacked into the database of Roskomnadzor, the agency responsible for censoring the country’s media.

The attack has allowed the group to seize more than 360,000 files, which they have now released to the public.

The main focus of the hacking has been documents concerning the republic of Bashkortostan, one of the largest provinces in the Russian federation.

Anonymous claim to have accessed 526.9 GB worth of files, with some as recent as March 5, 2022.

Anonymous argues that Roskomnadzor’s activities are a matter of public interest “to the people of Russia and to the world.

“Their recent actions have only emphasised this,” they said in a statement.

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

“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.

“This follows an established history of similar actions in the past.”

Distributed Email of Secrets claims their source from the hacktivist group felt “‘the Russian people should have access to information about their government.”

This is the latest cyber attack from Anonymous targeting the Russian state. The group have already encouraged their followers to post reviews of Russian businesses on Google Maps explaining what is happening in Ukraine.

They also claim to have shut down the Russian space agency, and previously managed to hack into Russian state TV and broadcast footage of the war in Ukraine.