As recently as last week, the hacker collective known as Anonymous was plaguing both houses on the issue of Russia’s aggression of Ukraine, condemning both Putin’s war preparations and NATO’s counter moves, advocating a UN-brokered solution to the crisis.
With Putin’s recognition of the “independent republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk, the group seems to have recognized the possibility that both sides are not the problem here.
The Taiwan News and other sites are reporting that Anonymous hacked a Chinese site (ChineseCulture.com.cn/) and inserted a page detailing its compromise of a Russian device as a “warning shot.”
A purported spokesman for the group later contacted the Taiwan News and confirmed the location of the compromised device and appeared to present a revised, post-invasion Anonymous policy toward the Putin regime.
The spokesperson said they were previously "playing nice and not give them an excuse to start a war," but now that missiles had been fired on Kyiv and elsewhere, "we are taking off the gloves altogether."
The hacktivist stated, "Anonymous will formally attack Russian websites or devices later" in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Should this prove to be the consensus view of the collective — consensus being required for large Anonymous operations, as members must pool resources (networks of botted computers, etc.) — Putin’s pet hackers may have awakened a formidable opponent.
Watch this space.