Hackers from the anonymous group hacked the site of the Russian state corporation for nuclear energy Rosatom on Tuesday. The corp is allegedly running Zaporizhzhya, a Ukrainian nuclear power plant seized by Russia.
Anonymous changed the interface on the site and made it otherwise inaccessible. They also claimed to have gained access to gigabytes of data, which they plan to leak to the public.
#Anonymous hacks into Russian firm nuclear plant. *Anonymous defaces Rosatom website, starts to leak gigabytes of data* (link to data in article: we can't post the link because Twitter is mean to us sometimes).https://t.co/2uxp0yafen
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) March 15, 2022
On March 4, Russian forces seized control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, with parts of the plant damaged during the fighting.
Both Ukraine and the rest of the world showed great concern as to the state of the plant, with Ukraine informing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) multiple times that they cannot confirm the state of the nuclear plant.
Although Russia has since denied that they are planning to take over the plant completely, officials from the Rosatom state corporation had reportedly arrived in Zaporizhzhya on March 11.
Rosatom claimed ownership of the plant and announced that it is now part of their firm, according to Ukraine's state-run nuclear energy company Energoatom.
This isn't the first rodeo for the Anonymous hacker group, Anonymous has been actively targeting Russia in cyberspace since the initial assault on Ukraine began on February 24.
The hacker group previously hacked Russian streaming services, hitting Wink and Ivi, as well as live TV channels Russia 24, Channel One and Moscow 24 to broadcast footage of the war with Ukraine.
Anonymous also posted photos on Twitter showing that, instead of regular broadcasting, a message appeared stating that "ordinary Russians are against the war" and called for Russians to oppose their government's attack on Ukraine.
The hacking collective #Anonymous hacked into the Russian streaming services Wink and Ivi (like Netflix) and live TV channels Russia 24, Channel One, Moscow 24 to broadcast war footage from Ukraine [today] pic.twitter.com/hzqcXT1xRU
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) March 6, 2022
In the days since, the group has claimed credit for several cyberattacks including DDOS attacks and the complete shutdown of government sites, which brought Russia's media and government sector to a grinding halt on the internet.