Cyber Incident Victim: Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation
Date:
Mar 2022
Location:
Russia
Summary
The Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation was disrupted by a DDoS attack conducted by the Anonymous hacktivist collective as part of their OpRussia campaign, alongside multiple other Russian government agencies including the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Sport. The attack overwhelmed the victim's website and related infrastructure, causing extended service outages that persisted for several hours. This incident formed part of Anonymous' coordinated cyber operations against Russian entities following the invasion of Ukraine, which previously included website defacements, broadcast intrusions, and compromises of surveillance systems and databases. The collective's activities targeted critical digital infrastructure to protest military actions, resulting in significant operational disruptions across affected organizations.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On March 15, 2022, at approximately 12:12 PM GMT, the hacktivist collective Anonymous executed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Russian government-affiliated websites as part of their declared Operation Russia campaign. The attacks targeted the online infrastructure of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Moscow Stock Exchange, the Moscow International Portal, the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, and the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation. These entities respectively hosted at fsb.gov.ru, moex.com, moscow.ru, minsport.gov.ru, and ac.gov.ru experienced sustained bombardment with high-volume traffic designed to overwhelm their servers. The coordinated strikes forced all five websites offline within the attack window. Seven hours post-incident, monitoring confirmed the targeted domains remained completely inaccessible to visitors, indicating prolonged service disruption. Technical restoration efforts or administrative responses by the affected Russian entities were not detailed in available reporting.
The incident represented one component of Anonymous’s broader retaliation against Russian digital infrastructure following the February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Prior cyber activities under Operation Russia included defacement of 400+ Russian surveillance cameras with anti-war messages and compromises of state television channels, databases, and the Russian Space Research Institute’s website. The March 15 DDoS campaign notably disrupted the Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation, an entity engaged in policy analysis and economic forecasting for federal authorities. No data breach or destruction of underlying information was asserted—the operational impact was confined to temporary unavailability of public-facing websites. Anonymous claimed responsibility through public channels, framing the actions as solidarity measures with Ukraine. The collective’s sustained focus on Russian targets persisted through subsequent weeks, though this specific attack’s duration of disruption for the Analytical Center and other entities was not quantified beyond the seven-hour confirmation window.