Using illegal means, the Russian government has been spying on its citizens, according to 128 GB of information leaked by Caxxii, a hacktivist group affiliated with Anonymous. The biggest Russian internet provider Convex provided the hacktivist group Anonymous with 128 terabytes of data describing the Kremlin’s alleged unauthorized monitoring of its citizens nationwide.
Such monitoring is categorized as illegal wiretapping, espionage, and unwarranted monitoring of citizens, all of which are against the law in the nation. The European Court of Human Rights urged the Kremlin to avoid the legal authorization requirements in Zakharov v. Russia (2015). Stating that the laws governing the country’s System for Operative Investigative Activities surveillance system did not provide sufficient and adequate guarantees.
Against the arbitrary use and abuse of any remote surveillance system. The Yarovaya Law, which was passed in 2016, made it possible for authorities to access communication data without a court order.
What Data was Dumped?
The purported information provides exclusive details of the as-yet-undisclosed Green Atom monitoring program, which Anonymous claims was run by Russia’s Federal Security Service, as well as how the Russian government allegedly monitors its citizens’ phone and internet activities.
Thousands of Russian people who were clients of Russian businesses targeted by this initiative are also listed in the data.
Given that Convex essentially grabbed the complete data, according to Anonymous, the Green Atom data show how far the Russian government abuses its legal framework. Furthermore, Anonymous stated they still held additional, unpublished details about the FSB’s intelligence-gathering operations.
What is the Green Atom Monitoring Program?
It was discovered that Convex had been operating a project called Green Atom that involved installing and maintaining surveillance technology for watching Russian residents’ and private companies’ online activity after Anonymous claimed that the data had been taken from Convex in a tweet.
Anonymous revealed Russian digital spying operations. The government used the equipment from Convex to carry out extensive surveillance operations through the Green Atom program, monitoring their incoming and outgoing communications.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, cyberattacks on Russian networks, and the war between Ukraine and Russia have intensified. The global hacktivist collective Anonymous, which aims to combat censorship and corruption, has so far taken credit for a number of cyber and social engineering assaults against the Russian government and the commercial sector.
The Yandex taxi app (1), Qiwi (2), Ministry of Culture (3), State-Run Broadcaster (4), Central Bank of Russia (5), unsecured printers (6), security cameras (7), media censoring agency Roskomnadzor (8), 90% of Russian databases misconfigured (9), TV transmissions (10) and electric vehicle charging station (11) are just a few of the targets of the collective’s attacks.
Russia is well-known for using the System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM) network to snoop on its residents. The Russian government has access to the calls, messages, and data of Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) clients through SORM, which was first formed in 1995 and is the company’s major phone supplier.
According to Russian law, spying on people’s phone records is legal. The law has changed over the past ten years to cover internet service providers and web businesses, forcing them to install SORM equipment. Roskomnadzor, the state internet regulator, punished many businesses for refusing to implement SORM technology.
Conclusion
A hacker gang leaked 128 terabytes of evidence exposing Putin illegally monitoring Russian citizens. Anonymous tweeted 128GB of papers from Convex, a Russian ISP. The cyber group said that Convex started “Green Atom,” an initiative to monitor Russian residents and businesses online. The hacker gang claimed Russia’s Federal Security Service runs a massive spying program. The Russian government’s System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM) taps millions of Russian individuals’ calls and communications. SORM, founded in 1995, accesses Mobile TeleSystems subscribers’ data to spy on Russians (MTS).
