Russian websites are repeatedly paralyzed – but it is difficult to verify whether Anonymus members or other actors are actually behind them.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin, Dusseldorf German law enforcement agencies are warning internet users against engaging in cyberattacks against Russia. Chief public prosecutor Markus Hartman from the central and contact point for cybercrime NRW (ZAC) in Cologne told the Handelsblatt: The criminal assessment of such attacks, including in the context of the Ukraine war, is based “exclusively on the requirements of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure”.
The ZAC is also moving what is happening in Ukraine and that “people around the world are trying to help in a variety of ways,” said the senior public prosecutor. However, no special rules could apply to the criminal assessment of activist attacks from Germany. Hartman: “I am currently concerned that hacker attacks are contributing to a further escalation of the conflict.”
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also points out that attacks on IT systems are prohibited. Hacking websites or participating in DDoS attacks harbors “considerable risk potential”. This is a deliberate overload of websites. The authority warns of unforeseeable consequences of cyber attacks, “e.g. with regard to existing dependencies of the attacked systems”. In addition, retaliatory measures are also conceivable.
After calls for help from the Ukrainian government, hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world have come together to coordinate cyber attacks against Russia online. The organizers of the IT Army of Ukraine Telegram group, for example, post daily lists of Russian government and corporate websites that they want to shut down. The group now has around 280,000 members, including German users.
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A team from the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) in Gießen is also observing this development. On request, the authority stated that it took note of “politically motivated calls”. Hacking activities that are punishable under German law would have to be checked on a case-by-case basis. However, there are currently no preliminary investigations at either the ZIT or the ZAC.
Meanwhile, the cyber front in the Ukraine war is becoming increasingly confusing. Ukraine’s Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on Twitter for “digital talent” to build a digital army and shared the link to the Telegram group “IT Army of Ukraine”. The politician wrote: “There is a task for everyone.”
Anonymous announces numerous successes
In addition, the international hacker collective Anonymous Russia has declared war. Accounts that allegedly belong to Anonymus repeatedly announced successes: websites were paralyzed, television stations were hijacked and a data set from the Russian Ministry of Defense was published.
However, there was only one piece of evidence for the hack of the Russian television station, and its authenticity is also questionable. The allegedly explosive data set turned out to be irrelevant and probably does not even come from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russian websites are in fact always paralyzed – but whether Anonymus members or other actors are behind it can hardly be verified. After all, Anonymus is a loose collective with no official internet presence or communication channels. A label under which, in principle, anyone can act.
So far, the actually verifiable cyber attacks have mainly been limited to DDoS attacks. According to Timo Kob from the IT security company HiSolutions, this should be seen as a kind of symbolic act: “It’s more like vandalism, more like graffiti on the wall than a real break-in.”
Hobby hackers simply lack the expertise for effective attacks. However, it cannot be ruled out that soon “the big boys will play along while the children let off steam”. Kob therefore warns of the possible consequences of the cyber attacks on Russia: “It’s playing with fire without knowing what will happen.”
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