Anonymous hacks unsecured printers to sends anti-war messages across Russia

Anonymous has carried out a mass “Print Attack” in which it has sent over 100,000 print copies to Russian citizens with messages against war and how to bypass censorship in the country.

Anonymous hacktivists are compromising vulnerable and misconfigured printers across Russia and sending print copies to users with anti-war messages. The modus operandi of this attack is similar to the one that Anonymous used last month in which the group hacked misconfigured cloud databases owned by businesses in Russia and left messages against the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

40,000+ Copies Printed Sent

The details of the attack were shared by one of the Anonymous affiliated groups with Hackread.com according to which as of Sunday, March 20th, 2022, the group had targeted 160 devices and printed over 40,000 copies with anti-war and “anti-propaganda” messages in the Russian language.

Anonymous hacks printers to send anti-war messages to Russians — Anonymous on Twitter

The printed copies also explained how users can bypass censorship in Russia by using the Tor browser. It is worth noting that the Russian government has blocked Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BBC News, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Bellingcat, Amnesty International, Meduza.io, Ukrayinska Pravda, Interfax-Ukraine, Radio Free Liberty, etc. since the invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, 24th February 2022.

“The printers were misconfigured, and manually forwarded on the Russian routers. In every case we have reviewed, the port was deliberately forwarded.“

Anonymous told Hackread.com

PDFs Printed with Anti-Propaganda Messages

In a conversation with Anonymous, Hackread.com was told that the hacked printers were forced to print PDFs with a message informing Russians that “their president, the government, and media all have been feeding them lies.”

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For dealing with the information blockade issue, Anonymous provided instructions on how to install tor to access authentic news about the war and evade Kremlin’s media censorship.

“Citizens of Russia, act now to stop terrorist. Putin killing over thousands in Ukraine… The people of Russia should find horror in Putin’s actions,” the message read.

The most recent printout sent by Anonymous can be accessed here .

Anonymous sides with Ukraine

It is no secret that Anonymous has sided with Ukraine over the ongoing conflict between two countries. The group has so far targeted the government and the private sector to spread its message. The list and timeline of some of the cyberattacks reported by Hackread.com are as follow: