Many Russian televisions were defaced with anti-war messages in protest of the war in Ukraine, just in time for Russia's celebration of its "Victory Day" against Nazi Germany.
Hackers reportedly took control of Russian smart TV schedule listings on Monday, implicating them with the ongoing conflict of their country with Ukraine.
The message read: "The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on your hands. TV and authorities are lying. No to war."
Hackers Also Targeted Russia's Largest Internet Companies
Hackers also targeted some of Russia's largest internet companies, including Yandex. This is in addition to the smart TVs.
Moreover, the hackers also went after Rutube, Russia's alternative to YouTube.
"Our video hosting has undergone a powerful cyberattack. At the moment, it is not possible to access the platform," Rutube said in a statement that it posted on its Telegram channel.
The service later stated that its content library wasn't accessed in the incident and it had isolated the attack.
Russia has been under consistent attack from hackers since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
According to Engadget, in the early days of the conflict, Anonymous claimed responsibility for a series of DDoS attacks that left several official government websites inaccessible. This includes one belonging to the Ministry of Defense.
Anonymous was also believed to be responsible for an incident that saw several Russian state TV channels play the Ukrainian national anthem, as per Engadget's report.
Engadget also said that with help from Microsoft and other western companies, Ukraine recently managed to prevent Russian military hackers from disrupting one of the country's energy providers.
Read Also: Anonymous Not Done With Leaks, Plans To Dump 1.22TB of Data That Will 'Blow Russia Away'
Anti-War Messages Found Posted on Pro-Russian Publication
According to Gizmodo, later on that day, BBC Monitoring reportedly found anti-war messages posted on the website of pro-Russian publication Lenta. However, this time the statements were reportedly happened internally, from two members of the publication's staff.
The anti-war messages, which were already deleted, reportedly included, "Vladimir Putin has turned into a pitiful dictator and paranoiac," "War makes it easier to cover up economic failures," and "Zelensky turned out to be cooler than Putin."
This isn't the first time rogue hackers have tried to mess up with the Russian news sites.
There have been previous attacks by hacktivist collective Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Russian movements and news sites.
The supposed Anonymous affiliated accounts went as far as to declare a "cyberwar" against Russia, Gizmodo reported.
Russia imposed anti-war hacking efforts as officials claimed they've experienced an "unprecedented" wave of attacks since its invasion.
On the other hand, according to recent Microsoft research, Ukraine may have experienced 237 different operations conducted by at least six Russian-linked cyber threat groups.
Russian dissidents are at odds with their government's invasion. They have gone to lengths to voice their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
In fact, a prominent state media journalist interrupted a live broadcast with a large sign reading "NO WAR" in March.
Related Article: Anonymous Continues Hacking of Russia, Targets Streaming Services
