Anonymous Takes Anti-Putin Battle To Russian People With Printer Attack To Disrupt Kremlin's Propaganda

Ever since declaring war against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Anonymous, the decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective, has continued to relentlessly hit the Kremlin with attacks that are undermining the country's leadership and disrupting its narrative on the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The latest is a printer hack, which allows the collective to send a message across the transcontinental country.

The details of the latest attack against Russia were shared by Anonymous on the micro-blogging site Twitter. "We have been printing anti-propaganda and tor installation instructions to printers all over #Russia for 2 hours, and printed 100,000+ copies so far. 15 people working on this op as we speak," the tweet read.

International Business Times had the opportunity to talk to one of the hacktivists and they confirmed the hack. They also explained that the operation included PDFs printed on the hacked printers with a message telling Russians that its president, Kremlin and Russian media have lied to them.

The hacktivist collective also helped recipients install tor, access "real media" and get around Russian censorship. The Onion Router or simply tor is free, open-source software that allows anonymous communication.

"We hacked printers all across Russia and printed this PDF explaining that Putin/Kremlin/Russian media is lying and then we instructed how to install tor and get around their censorship to access real media," one of the members, who goes by the Twitter handle @DepaixPorteur told IBT.

They also revealed some actors working behind the scene to make the recent Russian printer hack possible. These include Anonymous Strategic Support (A.S.S.) and #OpRedScare.

Translated by Google Lens, the English version of the PDF, showed, "Citizens of Russia, act now to stop terrorist[s]. Putin killing over thousands in Ukraine." It says that "the people of Russia should find horror in Putin's actions."

The statement also underlined that it was Putin who started the war over "borders and fear of the West," and not over Ukraine. The last paragraph noted, "a wad of paper and ink is a cheap price for the blood of the innocent." It also encourages Russians to fight for their "heritage and honor, overthrow Putin's corrupt system that steals from your pocket."

Anonymous had earlier told IBT that it is working on a data dump that "will blow Russia away."