Anonymous-linked group hacks Russian space research site, claims to leak mission files

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A group of hacktivists working in support of Ukraine have defaced a website belonging to Russia's Space Research Institute and leaked files that are believed to be from the Russian space agency.

The IKI website appears to have been penetrated by hackers, although other websites remain online. The World Space Observatory Ultraviolet project is a project similar to the Hubble Space Telescope and is planned for launch in 2025.

A group known as v0g3l Sec was blamed for the action by a popular account tied to the Anonymous movement.

The site was not accessible at the time of publication. The website was captured on the morning of March 3rd.

“Heyyy Russian f*** .. Sorry.. Cosmonauts ??.. idk what to say, go get a nice website instead of threatening people with ISS, heard??”

The last part of the message refers to comments made by the head of the Russian space agency, who implied that the partnership between NASA and Russian agencies could be in danger after sanctions were announced by the US.

The YourAnonNews account shared a link to a cloud-hosted zip file that claims to be a data leak from the Russian space agency. Vice reports that the download contains a mixture of handwritten forms, PDFs and spreadsheets and includes descriptions of lunar missions. The data was not confirmed by The Verge.

Just days after another group made a claim to have disabled Russian satellite control systems, another group made a claim of their own. The claims that a monitoring system used by the Russian space agency was shut down were rebutted by the group, which was operating under the name "NB65".

As the ground war between Russia and Ukraine continues, the cyber domain has seen a growing number of actors mounting operations against Russia and its allies, with data leaks emerging as a strategic tool. A hacking group known as AgainstTheWest claimed to have broken into theRosatom nuclear energy company, while another group called Anonymous Liberland released 200GB of emails from a defense contractor.

Russia and the US have cooperated on a number of space missions, but there are signs that Russian space agencies are being drawn into the conflict. The commercial satellites of OneWeb were held hostage by the Russian agency when they halted a launch planned for this week and issued a list of demands to their customer. The move by Russia to stop selling rocket engines to the US would have a limited impact on US companies.