Members of the global hacking group Anonymous are plotting a number of new attacks including database hacking and leaking, defacement of websites and ordering pizza (referring to food ordered in long work sessions).

Representatives of the hacking group told The Independent that these tactics – along with phishing, identifying targets’ phone numbers to escort websites and taking over data centers – are common tactics, but “you can imagine” what might happen next.

This is because Anonymous does not have a specific leadership or organizational structure, with the group saying that they do not “meet on time, to discuss and vote” but rather “someone comes up with the idea of ​​a particular breakthrough, and if others are interested, they join the group that will implement it.” .

The world has already seen the results of these hacks: electric car charging stations that now read “Glory to Ukraine,” Russian media sites have been disrupted with memorials showing the war dead, and Belarusian railways have been hacked to prevent troops from moving.

This particular group, which includes anonymous German-speaking “threaded” members, communicates on a server with several hundred active accounts. It claimed to be responsible for infiltration of other political groups in Europe.

The group told The Independent: “Nothing about these hacks is comparable in scope to a potential world war, but the players and tactics are pretty much the same… The same people who spewed misinformation about the coronavirus have moved smoothly to support Putin now.”

“This is a media war that Putin fought in the Western world, and now it is being fought in Russia for the sake of its own people,” she added.

Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities – both in terms of cybersecurity and disinformation – are powerful. Microsoft has claimed that the attacks it has registered could raise “serious concerns under the Geneva Convention”.

Russia appears to have launched attacks on “the financial sector, agriculture, emergency response services, humanitarian aid efforts, and energy sector organisations.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin is best known for developing the Internet Research Agency, a state-sponsored agency that manages online influence operations, including some related to the 2016 US election.