Anonymous hackers claim to have hacked Rosneft Deutschland, the German division of Russian energy giant Rosneft, and stolen 20 terabytes of data from its servers.
The hack was first revealed by local daily Die Welt on Sunday, citing Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
The BSI was alleged to have provided assistance in resolving the incident, which occurred late Friday night or early Saturday morning, according to the article.
After discovering the intrusion, Rosneft Deutschland shut down its networks and notified BSI.
The company’s pipelines and refineries are still operational, and officials are investigating the situation.
Rosneft is Germany’s third-largest oil refining company, having political ties to the country’s ruling class. In recent years, Rosneft Deutschland claims to be responsible for almost a quarter of all crude oil imports into Germany.
The board of Rosneft is chaired by Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who has been chastised for his close ties to Russian enterprises since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to Anonymous Germany (via Anonleaks), the corporation was targeted because of its extensive lobbying efforts against sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
#Anonymous has attacked the energy company Rosneft. It is confirmed to have caused extensive damage
The attack captured a total of 20TB of data #Rosneft is Russia's largest oil producer and is also involved in critical infrastructure in Germany#OpRussia https://t.co/P3f9RKhFEq— Anonymous • News🌐 (@Anonymous_Link) March 14, 2022
Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, is a close supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and one of the Russian billionaires sanctioned in recent weeks by Western governments. On March 3rd, officials in France seized a $120 million yacht belonging to Sechin.
According to Anonymous Germany (via Anonleaks), the corporation was targeted because of its extensive lobbying efforts against sanctions imposed on Russia as a result of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The hackers are said to have gained administrative access to parts of Rosneft’s German unit services, as well as a range of business papers and other material, as well as hard disc images of personnel devices and the mail server.
The hackers stated that they have no plans to disseminate the information.
‘The Anons will now get some rest before sifting over the material and deciding what to do with it.’ What is clear is that this information will not be made public. Because the impact of a public leak would be less than the profit gained by competitors.’
Anonymous has claimed responsibility for a number of cyberattacks against Russian organisations since the start of the Ukraine crisis.
The group has stated that it will only fight Russian operations and has announced its support for Western friends.
The organisation hacked into Russian state television and streaming sites earlier this month, including Russia 24, Channel One, Moscow 24, Wink, and Ivi, to display footage from the Ukraine crisis to ordinary Russians. Since the invasion, the Russian media has been tightly controlled by the government, and the typical Russian citizen is oblivious of the reality of the situation.
Hackers broke into the websites of Russian news organisations Izvestia, Kommersant, RBC Fontaka, and TASS last month, displaying pro-Ukraine propaganda.
Last month, Anonymous claimed responsibility for hacks that rendered many Russian government websites offline, including the official Kremlin website.
Just hours after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, the government’s website (government.ru), the State Duma’s (Russia’s lower house of parliament) website, and the Ministry of Defense’s website were all hacked.
