Exclusive Hackers stole Russian prisoner database to avenge death of Navalny CNN Politics
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Within hours of opposition leader Alexey Navalnyâs death in February in a Russian prison a group of antiKremlin hackers went looking for revenge
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Using their access to a computer networkâtied to Russiaâs prison system the hackers plastered a photo of Navalny on the hacked prison contractorâs websiteâaccording to interviews with the hackers screenshots and data reviewed by CNN
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âLong live Alexey Navalnyâ read a message on the hacked website accompanied by a photo of Navalny and his wife Yulia at a political rally
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In a stunning breach of security they also appear to have stolen a database containing information on hundreds of thousands of Russian prisonersâand their relatives and contacts including the hackers claim data held on prisoners in the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died on February 16
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The hackers who say they are a mix of nationalities including Russian expatriates and Ukrainians are sharing that data including phone numbers and email addresses of prisoners and their relatives âin the hope that somebody can contact them and help understand what happened to Navalnyâ a hacker claiming to be involved in the breach told CNN
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In addition the hackers used their access to the Russian prison systemâs online commissary where family members buy food for inmates to change the prices of things like noodles and canned beef to one ruble which is roughly 001 according to screenshots and videos of purchases from the online store posted by the hackers
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Normally those goods cost over 1
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It took several hours for the administrator of the online prison shop to notice that Russians were buying food for pennies according to the hacker involved And it would be three days before IT staff at the prison shop were able to fully shut down the hackerprovided discounts according to the hackerâs account
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âWe were watching the access logs to the online store and it just kept scrolling faster and faster with more and more customers making purchasesâ the hacker said in an online chat while providing data to CNN corroborating that they were involved in the hack
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The hackers claim that the database contains information on about 800000 prisoners and their relatives and contacts A CNN review of the data found some duplicate entries in the database but that it still contains information on hundreds of thousands of people CNN was able to match multiple prisoner names in screenshots shared by the hackers with people that according to public records are currently in Russian prison
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The online prison shop that the hackers appear to have breached is owned by the Russian state and officially known as JSC Kaluzhskoe according to Russian business records reviewed by CNNâ JSC Kaluzhskoe serves 34 regions in Russia
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CNN has requested comment from JSC Kaluzhskoe Russiaâs Federal Penitentiary Service known as FSIN and the individual website administrators that the hackers claim to have outsmarted
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On February 19 the day after the hackers defaced the website and replaced it with Navalnyâs photo JSC Kaluzhskoe posted on Russian social media platform VK that it had experienced a âtechnical failureâ that led to the âprices for food and basic necessitiesâ being âreflected incorrectlyâ
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Tom Hegel a cybersecurity expert with experience analyzing data dumps said the leaked data showed all signs of being authentic and that it had originated from the hacked prison shop
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The hackers âclearly had full blown access to get it allâ Hegel who is principal threat researcher at US cybersecurity firm SentinelOne âThe amount of images captured and data provided is quite thoroughâ
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The hacking group sent notes to administrators of the online prison shop warning them not to take the proNavalny messages off the website When the web administrators refused the hackers retaliated by destroying one of the administratorsâ computer servers the hacker claimed
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Navalny a charismatic political leader who railed against Russian government corruption died in mysterious circumstances on February 16 at a prison in YamaloNenets region 1200 miles northeast of Moscow The US holds Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for Navalnyâs death US President Joe Biden has said
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Politically motivated hacking or âhacktivismâ has been rampant in the more than two years since Russiaâs fullscale invasion of Ukraine In the days following the invasion a Ukrainian manâtook revengeâby leaking a trove of internal data from a Russian ransomware gang showing the groupâs alleged connections with Russian intelligence
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ProUkraine hackers of various stripes have joined the fray claiming responsibility for attacks on a Russian internet provider for example and websites that were broadcasting a highprofile Putin speech last year
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The war in Ukraine âhas undoubtedly begun a new chapter in the use of hacktivism unprecedented in its current scaleâ said Hegel the SentinelOne researcher âHacktivism has emerged as a powerful tool for diverse groups to express their perspectives rally behind their nations target perceived adversaries and attempt to influence the trajectory of the warâ
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The hack of the online prison shop came with a message from selfdescribed Russian expatriates
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âWe IT specialists left todayâs Russiaâ read a message in Russian on one of the prison shop websites according to a screenshot of the website on February 18 reviewed by CNN âWe love our country and will return when it is free from the Putin regime And weâll go till the end on this pathâ
pp 2024 Cable News Network A Warner Bros Discovery Company All Rights Reserved CNN Sans â  2016 Cable News Networkp
Within hours of opposition leader Alexey Navalnyâs death in February in a Russian prison a group of antiKremlin hackers went looking for revenge
pp
Using their access to a computer networkâtied to Russiaâs prison system the hackers plastered a photo of Navalny on the hacked prison contractorâs websiteâaccording to interviews with the hackers screenshots and data reviewed by CNN
pp
âLong live Alexey Navalnyâ read a message on the hacked website accompanied by a photo of Navalny and his wife Yulia at a political rally
pp
In a stunning breach of security they also appear to have stolen a database containing information on hundreds of thousands of Russian prisonersâand their relatives and contacts including the hackers claim data held on prisoners in the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died on February 16
pp
The hackers who say they are a mix of nationalities including Russian expatriates and Ukrainians are sharing that data including phone numbers and email addresses of prisoners and their relatives âin the hope that somebody can contact them and help understand what happened to Navalnyâ a hacker claiming to be involved in the breach told CNN
pp
In addition the hackers used their access to the Russian prison systemâs online commissary where family members buy food for inmates to change the prices of things like noodles and canned beef to one ruble which is roughly 001 according to screenshots and videos of purchases from the online store posted by the hackers
pp
Normally those goods cost over 1
pp
It took several hours for the administrator of the online prison shop to notice that Russians were buying food for pennies according to the hacker involved And it would be three days before IT staff at the prison shop were able to fully shut down the hackerprovided discounts according to the hackerâs account
pp
âWe were watching the access logs to the online store and it just kept scrolling faster and faster with more and more customers making purchasesâ the hacker said in an online chat while providing data to CNN corroborating that they were involved in the hack
pp
The hackers claim that the database contains information on about 800000 prisoners and their relatives and contacts A CNN review of the data found some duplicate entries in the database but that it still contains information on hundreds of thousands of people CNN was able to match multiple prisoner names in screenshots shared by the hackers with people that according to public records are currently in Russian prison
pp
The online prison shop that the hackers appear to have breached is owned by the Russian state and officially known as JSC Kaluzhskoe according to Russian business records reviewed by CNNâ JSC Kaluzhskoe serves 34 regions in Russia
pp
CNN has requested comment from JSC Kaluzhskoe Russiaâs Federal Penitentiary Service known as FSIN and the individual website administrators that the hackers claim to have outsmarted
pp
On February 19 the day after the hackers defaced the website and replaced it with Navalnyâs photo JSC Kaluzhskoe posted on Russian social media platform VK that it had experienced a âtechnical failureâ that led to the âprices for food and basic necessitiesâ being âreflected incorrectlyâ
pp
Tom Hegel a cybersecurity expert with experience analyzing data dumps said the leaked data showed all signs of being authentic and that it had originated from the hacked prison shop
pp
The hackers âclearly had full blown access to get it allâ Hegel who is principal threat researcher at US cybersecurity firm SentinelOne âThe amount of images captured and data provided is quite thoroughâ
pp
The hacking group sent notes to administrators of the online prison shop warning them not to take the proNavalny messages off the website When the web administrators refused the hackers retaliated by destroying one of the administratorsâ computer servers the hacker claimed
pp
Navalny a charismatic political leader who railed against Russian government corruption died in mysterious circumstances on February 16 at a prison in YamaloNenets region 1200 miles northeast of Moscow The US holds Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for Navalnyâs death US President Joe Biden has said
pp
Politically motivated hacking or âhacktivismâ has been rampant in the more than two years since Russiaâs fullscale invasion of Ukraine In the days following the invasion a Ukrainian manâtook revengeâby leaking a trove of internal data from a Russian ransomware gang showing the groupâs alleged connections with Russian intelligence
pp
ProUkraine hackers of various stripes have joined the fray claiming responsibility for attacks on a Russian internet provider for example and websites that were broadcasting a highprofile Putin speech last year
pp
The war in Ukraine âhas undoubtedly begun a new chapter in the use of hacktivism unprecedented in its current scaleâ said Hegel the SentinelOne researcher âHacktivism has emerged as a powerful tool for diverse groups to express their perspectives rally behind their nations target perceived adversaries and attempt to influence the trajectory of the warâ
pp
The hack of the online prison shop came with a message from selfdescribed Russian expatriates
pp
âWe IT specialists left todayâs Russiaâ read a message in Russian on one of the prison shop websites according to a screenshot of the website on February 18 reviewed by CNN âWe love our country and will return when it is free from the Putin regime And weâll go till the end on this pathâ
pp 2024 Cable News Network A Warner Bros Discovery Company All Rights Reserved CNN Sans â  2016 Cable News Networkp
