Personal data of 120,000 Russian soldiers hacked and leaked on the Internet

As part of cyberattacks in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the hacktivist group Anonymous exposed the personal data of some 120,000 Russian soldiers who have actively participated in this military campaign. The hackers, openly against Vladimir Putin decision, exposed information such as names, dates of birth, addresses and passport data.

This weekend, a Twitter account allegedly linked to Anonymous posted some tweets against Russian soldiers participating in the invasion, mentioning that they should face a war crimes tribunal and then notify that this information would be exposed online.

For now there is no way to corroborate whether this is an authentic leak or if it is a decoy launched by hackers, although this is undoubtedly a report that could prove counterproductive to the interests of the Russian state and its military campaign, affecting a significant portion of the active members of its army.

In addition, since Anonymous is an informal collective, cybersecurity specialist Jamie Collie finds it difficult to determine how many of these attacks are actually related to the hacking group.

Anonymous has carried out cyberattacks against Putin and the Kremlin since the beginning of the invasion. According to international media, just days after Russian troops began attacking parts of Crimea, hacktivists managed to compromise several Russian TV channels showing the horrific attacks in Ukraine with soldiers talking about the conflict.

The video also began circulating on Twitter with captions such as: “State television channels in #Russia have been hacked by #Anonymous to convey the truth about what is happening in #Ukraine.” These videos accumulate tens of millions of views.

To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.