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The international hacking collective Anonymous has declared a cyberwar against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The loosely affiliated group of hackers posted their intentions on the YourAnonNews Twitter account, saying some of its members are "currently involved in operations against the Russian Federation."
"#Anonymous is currently involved in operations against the Russian Federation. Our operations are targeting the Russian government. There is an inevitability that the private sector will most likely be affected too," the group tweeted.
A number of Russian websites were taken offline due to cyberattacks launched by members of the group, including the websites for the Kremlin and State Duma lower house of parliament, RT.com, the Russian government-funded news outlet, and Gazprom, the Russian-owned energy company.
As of 11 a.m. ET on Friday (February 25), most of the sites were back online, but RT.com remained inaccessible, despite earlier claims that it had managed to repel the distributed denial of service attack.
The group has not posted information about any future attacks or if it plans to go beyond taking websites offline. They did tweet a warning to people who wish to join the attacks, advising them to stay out of the fight unless they know how to protect their privacy while engaging in illegal activities.
"Warning: We all know how the criminal justice system works in the USA. So, if you're new around here and are thinking about participating in online adventures against Russia yet don't know a damn thing about maintaining your own online privacy: Don't," they tweeted.