Anonymous claims it has shut down Russia’s space agency – so Putin ‘no longer has control over spy satellites’

ANONYMOUS has claimed that it has shut down Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.

The hacking team has said that Russian officials have “no more control over their spy satellites.”

GettyAnonymous has claimed that it has shut down Russia’s space agency[/caption]

Russia has denied the claims and called the group ‘petty swindlers’Reuters

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on January 31, 2011Getty Images – Getty

However, the Director General of Roscosmos, Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, denied the claim and called the group “petty swindlers.”

In a social media statement, he said: “The information of these scammers and petty swindlers is not true. All our space activity control centers are operating normally.”

Rogozin has previously stated that control of the Russian space industry, orbital group and the Russian International Space Station segment is protected from cyber criminals.

It comes just days after Anonymous claimed it had successfully breached over 300 Russian websites and offered troops over $53,000 to give up their tanks.

The offer to buy tanks from Russian soldiers has emerged after reports that Russia refused to open its stock market.

It initially said that they would delay opening it for a few hours, before eventually stating that it would remain closed all day.

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The notorious hacker community claims to have collected over RUB 1billion ($10.3million) and is offering tank crews RUB 5 million ($51,000) for each surrendered tank, according to Ukrainian media.

Russian troops are advised by the collective to surrender with a white flag and use the password “million” to show that they accept the collective’s terms.

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has also reportedly said that it will guarantee amnesty to surrendering forces.

Anonymous is allegedly telling Russian soldiers: “Russian soldiers, everyone who wants to live with their families, children, and not die, the Anonymous global community has collected RUB 1,225,043 in bitcoin to help you.”

The move comes after the notorious international hacking collective declared war on Putin’s war machine in response to a call to arms from the Ukrainian government.

TELEGRAM CHANNEL CREATED

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov reportedly announced the creation of a Telegram channel for the IT Army of Ukraine on Saturday.

He said: “We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. All operational tasks will be given here. There will be tasks for everyone. We continue to fight on the cyber front.”

He added: “In 2022 modern technologies are one of the best responses to tanks, rockets and missiles.

“I’ve addressed to the biggest tech giants to support the sanctions for Russian Federation. We asked them to help us stop this outrageous aggression on our people!”

The highly decentralized hacking collective that first made headlines over 10 years ago with the Occupy Wall Street movement has reportedly been multiplying attacks on Russian targets over the weekend, claiming over 300 successful breaches, including the state-run news agency TASS.

This also includes allegedly hacking into Russian TV so that all channels played Ukrainian folk songs, as seen in this footage, with the pro-Ukraine hackers claiming the hack saying that they are from Anonymous.

MEDIA TAKE DOWN

The hacking collective also claimed to have taken down state-owned media outlet RT (Russia Today) which is about to be banned in the European Union along with state-funded news outlet Sputnik, with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, saying: “We will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU.

The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war.”

The hacker group said on Twitter that 300 websites belonging to Russian government agencies, state media outlets, banks, as well as websites of leading Belarusian banks, including Belarusbank, Priorbank and Belinvestbank, had all been hacked. They said: “Access to the sites belarusbank.by, priorbank.by, belinvestbank.by is denied.”

The regular websites have been replaced with a message calling for an end to the hostilities.

“Dear citizens. We urge you to stop this madness, do not send your sons and husbands to certain death,” the message read. “Putin is forcing us to lie and is putting us in danger.”