The role of hacktivists
So far, hacktivists have played a big role in the Ukrainian crisis. Non-state actors, allegedly incensed by Russia’s war, have unleashed a wave of hacktivist attacks on the country — targeting a broad array of Russian businesses and government agencies. Whether these anonymous groups are truly non-state actors is anybody’s guess. There is a decent amount of evidence to suggest that much of what passes for hacktivism these days is actually just state-sponsored hacking in disguise.
That said, we do know that hackers calling themselves hacktivists have been hacking Russia quite a whole lot. Most visibly, the well-known group Anonymous declared war on Putin’s government over the Ukraine invasion, leaking gigabytes of data. The group has claimed a number of victories, including alleged hacks on the nation’s central bank, on a variety of companies and corporate databases, and on several media organizations and websites.
