Russian Ministry Website Reportedly Hacked

Russia’s Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities website has been reportedly hacked, with an internet search for the site leading to a “Glory to Ukraine” sign in Ukrainian.

RIA, Russia’s state news agency, quoted a ministry representative on Sunday, revealing that the site was down, but users’ personal data was unaffected.

RIA said that hackers were purportedly demanding a ransom to prevent the disclosure of personal data to the public.

Many Russian state-owned companies and news organizations have suffered attacks in recent months since Russia invaded Ukraine.

In February, state-owned news agency TASS and daily newspaper Kommersant were hacked, while St Petersburg-based news outlet Fontanka’s content was replaced with a message addressed to Russia’s citizens that read, “This is not our war, let’s stop it!”

In May, Russia’s television listings system was hacked during ‘Victory Day.’ The hack affected several major networks, including Channel One, Rossiya-1 and NTV-Plus.

Last month, hacktivist group Anonymous announced on social media that it’s launching a cyber-war against the pro-Russian group Killnet, which recently attacked European institutions. In March, the hacktivist group claimed it breached the database of the Russian federal agency responsible for the supervision of communications, information technology and mass media, leaking over 360,000 files in the process.