Anonymous sets its sights on Putin
Russian people march along a street during an opposition’s protest rally in Moscow on May 6, 2012. Russian riot police violently clashed with protesters at a rally on the eve of strongman Vladimir Putin’s return for a third Kremlin term, arresting over 250 people including opposition leaders.
Soon after the reelection of Russian President Vladimir Putin, hacker collective Anonymous has brought down the Kremlin’s official website, kremlin.ru, in support of the thousands of protesters that took to the streets in Moscow to voice their disdain for the election results.
Police used force to stop protesters even though the demonstration had been approved by Moscow’s municipal authorities.
Kremlin.ru was down for a few hours on Wednesday.
“kremlin.ru – TANGO DOWN http://host-tracker.com/check_res_ajx/10287246-0/ http://i.imgur.com/ukzm8.png #OpDefiance #Anonymous #d4th #DDoS #WIN,” tweeted what appears to be Anonymous’ Russian wing, linking to a screenshot demonstrating that kreminlin.ru was unable to be accessed by users in all parts of the world.
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"Our sisters and brothers @Op_Russia visited Putin, and threw a digital shoe right up his kremlin, …without ze lube #anonymous." Tweeted the Swedish arm of anonymous in solidarity with the groups Russian contingent.
The Kremlin confirmed the DoS attack took place on their website.
"We received threats from Anonymous several days ago but we can't confirm it's exactly this group that attacked the Kremlin.ru website. At the moment we can't establish who's behind the attack. Unfortunately we live at a time when technology security threats have mounted, but we have the means to resist them," said a Kremlin press spokesman to Reuters.
"All the relevant departments are taking the necessary measures to counteract (such) attacks," he added.
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