“Anonymous” Claims To Hack Russia’s Central Bank; Threatens To Release Secret Files

The international hacking collective Anonymous claims to have hacked the Central Bank of Russia in support of Ukraine amid ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. However, Russia’s central bank refuted the news of any possible hacking attack. Meanwhile, Anonymous is not stopping here as it threatens to release over 35,000 files with secret agreement within the next 48 hours.

Anonymous to go hard on Russia

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the group of hackers has started an operation named #OpRussia to attack the country digitally. Anonymous is also waring the global corporations to withdraw their services from Russia if they don’t want to get hacked.

This is a part of a series of cyberattacks to punish Russia for the invasion. The group shared how it has attacked the company’s website and database operating in Russia. Earlier, they hacked state-controlled media and government websites.

Will Russia go after crypto?

Hackers targeting the central bank have come amid the implications of recent sanctions which have forced the country to move towards cryptocurrency. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde raised major concerns about Russia using digital assets to bypass the imposed limitations.

She said that Russians are converting rubles into cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. Christine also mentioned that they have witnessed the highest level of volumes of rubles into stable and crypto since 2021.

There is no evidence of Russia or President Vladimir Putin using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, said, Jonathan Levin, co-founder of blockchain-analytics firm Chainalysis.

According to a report, now Russian Federation is looking to trade energy sources and oil with ‘friendly’ nations in Bitcoin.

Earlier, Reports emerged that Anonymous targeted over 300 Russians from which they collected around RUB 1 billion. The hackers also offered Russian soldiers to surrender their tanks in return for over $52,000 worth of bitcoin.