2 weeks Ago
Anonymous strikes again NurPhoto via Getty Images The Anonymous PR machine is in full flight once again, with a new attack on Russia “in defense of Ukraine.” The hacking collective has released a cache of some 10 terabytes, which it says includes “data on all businesses operating in Russia, all Kremlin assets in the West, pro-Russian officials, Donald Trump, and more.” These Anonymous hacks don’t have the same impact as in the past, potentially because there have now been so many.
And Cybernews reports that “from what files have been examined so far, the overall consensus seems to be that the leaked info is simply not that exciting, and apparently not that secret.” But it will generate headlines — which is the point — and there will be plenty of analysis on the data cache, including an intriguing Domino’s Pizza file. But in reality, there will be little surprise that Russian officials are allegedly corrupt or that they have deep ties to the West.
As one analyst notes, “mostly the information in the archive is specific to individual companies in Russia with folders for them and random PDFs for each company. This archive may be useful to the UKR armed forces since there are hundreds of PDF on defense companies in Russia.” Delete All Texts On Your Phone If You See These 2 Words Given the size of the cache, it may be some days before a more thorough analysis of the data will be available.
And we have certainly seen nuggets of intel buried in such archives before. Par of the problem is that it’s unclear what is being searcher through. Russia’s role as a rogue state is fairly well established now, especially as it’s viewed from Europe and elsewhere as its Ukraine campaign continues.
Again unsurprisingly, a raft of blue chip international names appear in the data, as well as some NGOs operating in the region. Google Pixel’s Unbeatable Upgrade—Bad News For Samsung But as one Redditor notes, several of those who have sifted through the data “are reporting that this is increasingly looking like it’s bunk. Don’t download the files.
I would avoid anonymous’ PR website as it’s directing to the mediafire link that was being distro’d widely earlier in the day just in case it’s malware.” For now, you can ignore this as a mid-week distraction. But we will clearly return to the story if and when anything more interesting turns up in the data.
And maybe we will. As another Redditor put it, “at the end of the day, let’s not pretend what they’re doing here isn’t a high tech version of a looting: they pound on some weakness, get in, grab as much as they can..
. And when they get out, they either got garbage bags of Pringles and lotion or Rolexes.”.
