More than three weeks ago, a popular Twitter account named "Anonymous" declared that the activist group was fighting a cyber war against Russia.
Since then, the account which has more than 7.9 million followers, with some 500,000 gained since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has claimed responsibility for disabling prominent Russian government, news and corporate websites.
Is any of that true?
It appears it is, according to a co-founder of the cybersecurity company Security Discovery, who worked with researchers at the web company Website Planet to attempt to verify the group's claims.
He wrote that the group has penetrated high value targets, records and databases in the Russian Federation.
92 Russian databases had been compromised, according to Fowler.
They were owned by retailers, Russian internet providers and intergovernmental websites, including the Commonwealth of Independent States, an organization made up of Russia and other former Soviet nations that was created in 1991.
Many files were erased, hundreds of folders were renamed and email addresses and administrative credentials were exposed.
There were more than 270,000 names and email addresses in the hacked database.
Fowler said that they know for a fact that the systems were accessed by hackers.
Fowler said that other databases contained security information, internal passwords and a large number of secret keys.
Fowler said he followed the claims of Anonymous and that the timeline matches their claims.
The Russian state TV stations have been claimed to have been hacked.
Fowler said that he would mark that as true if he were a factchecker.
The English-language Russian news website RT “is for a western audience, and so what what’s being shown on RT is not what’s being told in Russia,” said Security Discovery’s Jeremiah Fowler.The account claimed to have disrupted websites of major Russian organizations, such as the energy company and the news agency.
Many agencies have admitted that they were attacked.
He called denial of service attacks, which aim to disabling websites by flooding them with traffic, super easy.
Fowler didn't find any instances where Anonymous overstated its claims.
Lotem Finkelstein is the head of threat intelligence and research at Check Point Software Technologies.
A pro-Ukrainian group claimed to have broken into a Russian nuclear reactor, while a pro-Russian group shut down the website. Both claims were found to be false by Check Point.
As there is no real official Anonymous website, this attack appears to be more of a booster for the pro-Russian side, and a publicity event.
Finkelstein said that groups are making fake claims by posting old or publicly available information.
Fowler thinks that Anonymous is more dedicated to the cause than it is to notoriety.
He said that it was more about the messaging than saying "Anonymous troop No. 21, group five, did this."
Paul de Souza, the founder of the Cyber Security Forum Initiative, said that hacktivists who conduct offensive cyber warfare-like activities without government authority are engaging in criminal acts.
Many social media users are cheering the efforts of Anonymous, with many posts receiving thousands of likes and messages of support.
They are almost like a cyber Robin Hood, because no one else can really do anything about the causes that people care about.
Many hacktivist groups have strong values, according to a cybersecurity partner at the consulting firm Guidehouse. She said that cyber activism is a low-cost way for them to influence actions.
Bailey said it is protesting in the 21st century.
She said that cheering them on can be dangerous.
She said that a cyber strike back could be directed to the wrong place. If someone makes the attack appear from a specific country, what happens?
She said that cyber warfare can be cheaper, easier, more effective and easier to deny than traditional military warfare, and that it will only increase with time.
The opportunity for impact continues to expand, and it will be used more often in future conflicts.
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