Anonymous ! Unwelcomed Russian Central bank Guest

Hacktivist group Anonymous has threatened to release files after hacking the Central Bank of Russia.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation, is responsible for protecting and ensuring the safety of the Russia’s currency, the ruble that took a nosedive following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The post included an image of the smiling mask associated with the group and read: “JUST IN: The #Anonymous collective has hacked the Central Bank of Russia. More than 35.000 files will be released within 48 hours with secret agreements. #OpRussia.”

The exact nature of the files threatened for release has not been revealed, but Anonymous claims they include ‘secret agreements’.

News of the hack comes after reports emerged about central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina having sought to resign from the role in the wake of the Ukrainian invasion, only to have President Vladimir Putin tell her to stay in the role.

The bank was forced to more than double the key interest rate and impose capital controls to staunch the outflow of cash following Putin’s announcement of a ‘special military operation’ on 24 February, with Oleg Vyugin, a former top Bank of Russia official who’s known Nabiullina for more than 20 years, telling Bloomberg the bank can ‘only adapt to shocks’ amid an escalation.

The alleged hack of the bank comes amid a flurry of attacks launched against Russia by Anonymous, which promised ‘cyber war’ against the Russian president following the invasion.

This week it also claimed to have remotely accessed unsecured printers across the country to print out ‘anti-propaganda’ messages about the war across the border, writing: “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.”