This Hacktivist Site Lets You Prank-Call Russian Officials

The nuisance that can't be eradicated has become a modern menace, as the destroyer of focus. Maybe they can be used to strike a small and slightly absurd blow against the Russian government.

A group of international hacktivists launched a website today called WasteRussianTime.today, which is designed to combine prank calling androbocalling into an automated weapon of annoyance for the Russian state. Visit the site, click a button, and it will cycle through a leaked list of Russian government, military, and intelligence phone numbers to connect two random Russian officials, and allow the site's visitor to silently listen in as those officials waste their time trying to figure out.

One of the site's creators who goes by the name She says they are hoping for confusion, that they get annoyed, and that these might be interesting calls to listen to for people who speak Russian. The group of artists, activists, and coders behind the site is called the Obfuscated Dreams of Scheherazade.

Hacktivists working independently and supported by the Ukrainian government have carried out an unprecedented campaign of hacking operations targeting Russian organizations, some of which have resulted in the theft and leak of hundreds of gigabytes of Russians. The names and contact details of over 500 Russian intelligence agents were released by the Ukrainian government.

The creators of WasteRussianTime.today say they have assembled more than 5,000 Russian government phone numbers, both landlines and cell phones, by combing through that pile of leaked information.

WasteRussianTime.today is designed to work by merging the user into a three-way call with the first two Russian phones that connect, and by automatically calling 40 of the leaked phone numbers. The site's creators decided not to allow visitors to speak on the calls for fear that they might say something that could endanger themselves. The site functions as a kind of performance art installation, allowing visitors to silently observe and enjoy its calls.

The site's creators still seemed to be ironing out some bugs in the dozen or so test calls they took before the site's launch. Most of the calls resulted in at least one non-working number audio message, because the site only worked on desktop. At least one confused Russian-speaking person picked up on the calls. Two people picked up the phone and one hung up, but only one call. Shera says that the site's developers will be tweaking it over time to identify and weed out non-working numbers.