Cyber Incident Victim: Federal Security Service
Date:
Mar 2022
Location:
Russia
Summary
Anonymous hacktivists executed a DDoS attack against the Federal Security Service's official website and other Russian government entities—including the stock exchange, Moscow's international portal, and ministries—as part of their OpRussia campaign. The attack overwhelmed the targets' infrastructure, rendering them inaccessible for approximately seven hours and demonstrating sustained disruption capabilities. This offensive aligned with Anonymous's broader operations supporting Ukraine, which have persistently targeted Russian digital assets since the invasion, including prior compromises of surveillance systems and state media channels. The collective's actions emphasized coordinated disruption of critical online services to protest Russian military activities.
| 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 Anonymous hacktivist collective executed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Russian government websites as part of their ongoing OpRussia campaign. The primary target was the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's principal security agency, whose official website fsb.gov.ru was overwhelmed with traffic alongside four other high-profile institutions: the Russian Stock Exchange (moex.com), Moscow International Portal (moscow.ru), Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation (minsport.gov.ru), and the Analytical Center for the Government (ac.gov.ru). The coordinated bombardment of artificial traffic rendered all targeted websites inaccessible immediately following the attack. Seven hours post-incident, all five domains remained completely offline and unreachable to visitors, indicating sustained disruption to critical government digital services. Anonymous publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks, framing them as retaliation for Russia's military actions in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022. The group utilized standard DDoS methodology, flooding target servers with requests until they exceeded capacity thresholds and ceased functioning. No data breaches, defacements, or malware deployments were reported in this specific incident, distinguishing it from other Anonymous operations that involved system intrusions. The prolonged downtime demonstrated the operational effectiveness of the attacks despite their relatively simple technical nature.
This incident represented one component of Anonymous’s broader cyber campaign against Russian infrastructure following the Ukraine invasion. Prior attacks under OpRussia included the defacement of over 400 Russian surveillance cameras with anti-Putin messages and the compromise of misconfigured databases. Parallel operations targeted state media outlets, electric vehicle charging stations in Moscow, and the Russian Space Research Institute’s website. The FSB attack marked Anonymous’s first major disruption of Russia’s domestic security apparatus since the conflict began, expanding their targeting beyond cultural and economic entities to core intelligence infrastructure. The collective’s public communications explicitly linked the timing and motivation of the DDoS strikes to geopolitical developments, though no direct coordination with Ukrainian entities was documented. Russian authorities did not issue public statements regarding mitigation efforts or restoration timelines for the affected websites. The persistent seven-hour outage suggested limited defensive capabilities or deliberate delay in restoring services to prevent follow-up attacks. This event exemplified how hacktivist collectives leveraged basic attack vectors to achieve tangible disruptions during international conflicts.