(JustPatriots.com)- Hackers linked to Anonymous have claimed they leaked over 900,000 emails spanning twenty years from Russia’s largest state-run media corporation.
Network Battalion 65, or NB65, leaked the 786.2 GB email cache hacked from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) to DDoSecrets (Distributed Denial of Secrets).
DDoSecrets co-founder Emma Best described the leak as “an unprecedented exposure of state-owned media and propaganda which the Russian government considers essential to the state security.”
This is the latest in a string of hacks NB65 has claimed. On February 28, NB65 took down the Russian state news agencies TASS, Fontanka, Kommersant, the Kremlin-backed channel Russia Today (RT), and the Kremlin website.
On Sunday NB65 claimed it leaked the personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, including dates of birth, names, home addresses, and passport numbers. Following the release, the group announced that soldiers fighting in Ukraine “should be subjected to a war crime tribunal.”
In addition to the 900,000 leaked emails, NB65 also leaked 4,000 files, mostly media assets and clips taken from VGTRK’s cloud server.
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Anonymous declared a cyberwar against the Russian government.
A recorded message from “Anonymous” to Vladimir Putin told the Russian President that his invasion of Ukraine showed that his regime “has no respect for the human rights or the self-determination of your neighbors.” Calling Putin an “instigator” of violence, the video message warned Putin that the members of Anonymous were declaring a cyberwar “against your aggressive regime.”
“Soon you will feel the full wrath of the world’s hackers,” the video message told Putin.
The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company is Russia’s largest state-run media corporation, operating five national TV stations, two international networks, five national radio stations, and more than 80 regional TV and radio networks. VGTRK also runs the information agency Rossiya Segadnya which operates Sputnik News.
DDoSecrets also published a large number of emails from the Russian law firm Capital Legal Services. It recently published about 57,000 emails from the Russian Orthodox Church’s charitable wing. Anonymous has not confirmed whether its group was responsible for that hack.