The websites of several Belarusian ministries have reportedly been taken down in a new attack, part of Cyberwar Anonymous working to help Ukraine. The hacking group announced that it was targeting the Belarusian government for its involvement in the Russian invasion of the neighboring country.
Several government sites in Belarus taken offline by Anonymous
Websites of the Belarusian economy, education and justice ministries as well as the online platform of the country’s National Legal Information Center have been affected by Anonymous, a Twitter account linked to a decentralized hacktivist collective, announced.
According to a recent post published by Anonymous TV (@YourAnonTV), the attack is in response to Belarus’ involvement in support of Russia’s ongoing military offensive on Ukraine. A few days ago, the authors of the tweet said that Belarus’ biggest government websites were down. Some of them have already been restored.
Just In: Massive Attack by #anonymous against the Belarusian government for their participation in #Ukraine️ attack. They have all the biggest government websites #offline, #Opurus #OpBelarus #freeukraine pic.twitter.com/b358jRwPu2
— Anonymous TV (@YourAnonTV) 29 May 2022
Belarus has not sent its forces to Ukraine, but has allowed its closest ally, Russia, to use its territory and infrastructure in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” against the government in Kyiv. Although this is the first time Belarusian government websites have been targeted, Anonymous has so far carried out several attacks against Russian online resources.
Shortly after Russian forces crossed Ukrainian borders in late February, the hacking group declared cyber war on Russia, vowing to disrupt the country’s Internet space. Since then it has hit the websites of the Kremlin, the State Duma and the Ministry of Defense, attacked Russian TV channels, and released millions of leaked emails.
In March, the hacktivist collective announced that it had published 28GB of documents relating to the Central Bank of Russia, including some of its “secret agreements.” In early May, Anonymous-affiliated hacking group Network Battalion 65 (NB65) said it had targeted payment processor Qiwi. Later that month, Russia’s largest banking institution, Sberbank, also suffered a setback.
Do you expect Anonymous to continue hitting Russian and Belarusian targets? Tell us in the comments section below.
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