A group of anti-Kremlin hackers gained access to the computer network run by Russia's Federal Prison Service (FSS) and claimed to have obtained data on hundreds of thousands of prisoners, following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a penal colony, C CNN, quoted by Ukrinform, writes BTA.
According to the hackers, they gained access to the agency's database, which contains information on approximately 800,000 Russian prisoners, their families and contacts, including details of convicts serving their sentences at the colony where Navalny died on February 16.
On the website of the prison service, the hackers published a photo of the late opposition leader together with his wife Yulia during a political rally.
The hackers, who claim to be of various ethnic backgrounds, including Russian expatriates and Ukrainians, are sharing the data “in the hope that someone can contact them and help figure out what happened to Navalny”. said one of the cyberattackers, who told CNN he was involved in the breach.
A CNN analysis found several duplicate entries in the database, but it still contains information on hundreds of thousands of people. CNN was also able to connect several names seen in the snapshots shared by the hackers to people who are currently in a Russian prison, according to public records.
The group also gained access to the prison's online store, where inmates' families can buy food for them, and changed the prices of some goods to just one ruble. This is clear from screenshots and videos posted by the hackers.
The group also published Navalny's photo on the store's website. She has sent a warning to the administrators of the prison's online store not to remove the image and says she will proceed to destroy one of its servers if the administrators do not heed the warning.
The hackers “obviously had full access to do all of this,” said Tom Hegel, who is the chief cyberthreat researcher at US cybersecurity firm SentinelOne. “The amount of imagery captured and data provided is quite extensive,” he added.
On February 16, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service announced that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died in Penal Colony No. 3 in the Arctic. He was buried in Moscow at the beginning of March.
The Council of the EU adopted a decision to introduce sanctions against 33 individuals and 2 institutions in the Russian Federation involved in the death of Navalny in the maximum security prison.