Cyberhacking Group Anonymous Exploits Printer Vulnerabilities to Assist Ukraine

By Jamie Bsales, Keypoint Intelligence: We spend a lot of time and resources here at Keypoint Intelligence educating about (and testing for) printer vulnerabilities. So we never thought we would be happy to see a widespread printer hack…until this one. Members of the notorious cyber-hacking collective know as Anonymous have put their skills to use in supporting Ukraine by sending anti-war messages to printers around the Russian Federation that were left vulnerable to the exploit.

With information about the war tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Anonymous decided this end-run directly to Russian citizens would be an effective way to try to counter Russian disinformation. The group claims to have printed hundreds of thousands of pages bearing messages that include, “Citizens of Russia, act now to stop terrorists…Putin killing over thousands in Ukraine…The people of Russia should find horror in Putin’s actions…Fight for your heritage and honor, overthrow Putin’s corrupt system that steals from your pockets…Give peace and glory to Ukraine, which did not deserve the murder of its innocents!” Anonymous also claims to be behind the “doxing” (the release of personal information) of 120,000 Russian soldiers.