Kremlin websites restored after being reportedly hacked by Anonymous

The Kremlin seems to have restored its website several hours after global hacker organization ‘Anonymous’ took down the site. 

The hacker group had announced a cyber war against Russia on February 24 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The announcement was followed by the group taking down Russian government websites including state-run news agency Russia Today. 

Hackers affiliated with Anonymous allegedly confirmed that the collective had launched cyber operations that made RT.com and other Russian websites go offline for a short period of time. 

“Anonymous has ongoing operations to keep .ru government websites offline, and to push information to the Russian people so they can be free of Putin’s state censorship machine,” read a tweet by the group on February 25.

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“We also have ongoing operations to keep the Ukrainian people online as best we can,” it added. 

On Wednesday, Anonymous shared screenshots of Kremlin’s server status on Twitter.

“Kremlin.ru is down for everyone,” the hacker collective said. 

According to Newsweek, the Russian website has been restored and is back online. 

Anonymous has hacked over 2,500 Russian government, bank and media websites, according to Ukrainian media outlets. 

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According to news outlet Ukrinform, broadcasts of the war have been shut down after Anonymous hacked all Russian state television channels. 

The group has also taken responsibility for hacking Russian television channels and security cameras placed in military bases. 

Declaring a cyber attack on February 24, the group stated that its actions are purely directed towards Russian President Vladamir Putin and his government. 

 “Anonymous is currently involved in operations against the Russian Federation,” the group wrote on Twitter.

 “Our operations are targeting the Russian government. There is an inevitability that the private sector will most likely be affected too.”

Since the hacking attempt, several websites of the Russian Ministry of Defence, Kremlin, Duma and news outlet RT have been affected.