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Anonymous hacker collective announced that it “is officially in cyber war against the pro-Russian hacker group Killnet” on Twitter this week.
Two months ago, Killnet announced it was at war with Anonymous but the risk of spillover affecting organisations is low according to Allan Liska, an analyst with Recorded Future.
In a SC Magazine report, Liska explained that this development could be billed as a fight between high-profile citizen cyber warfare groups backing opposite sides of a kinetic conflict.
“In practice, in the context of huge beasts of war causing geopolitical strife and the risk of spillover, Brainy Smurf and Handy Smurf are getting into a fight,” Liska said.
Neither group has had much disruptive impact during the conflict affecting the outside world by attacking it directly.
“The risk of an escalating conflict between the two groups affecting the outside world is minimal,” Liska added.
The Anonymous brand name was built through high-profile protests, though it has declined in the hierarchy of threats for most organisations since its heyday.
Throughout the war in Ukraine, Anonymous took credit for nuisance attacks on Russian targets, including hack and leak operations involving its largest bank and an energy customs broker, reprogramming Russian media to show clips of the conflict, and DDoS operations against the country’s space agency.
Killnet briefly disrupted the Italian Senate servers and an automotive club with its own DDoS and failed at a high-profile attack on the Eurovision music contest.
Anonymous then conducted a DDoS attack on the Killnet website after tweeting the group wanted to 'wage war.'
While the level of interest is high over this recent feud, Liska notes that this particular cyber conflict between the Anonymous and Killnet groups won't put others at risk.
“Compare what Anonymous and what Killnet are doing to what Conti has done in Costa Rica.
“When you want to talk about real damage, that is what cyber criminals are capable of doing.
“Anonymous and Killnet aren’t doing that,” Liska said.
[Related: Conti threatens to overthrow Costa Rican government, demands $20m ransom]
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