Two years in prison for Russian hacker group leader

A Russian court today sentenced the leader of a group of hackers to two years of freedom, following attacks on high officials' accounts on social networks.

Vladimir Annikyev, who heads the Hampti-Dampti hackers group, has been charged with attacking Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter account. Annikyev, who has been in custody since the arrest in October 2016, is accused of having had unauthorized access to the Russian prime minister's data.

The hacker group in 2014 has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Russian prime minister's Twitter account. The group on behalf of Medvedev has written the message that he is launching his prime minister post to become a photographer. Russian President Vladimir Putin was criticised on this order.

By contrast, the group had first been introduced as a group of hackers against the Kremlin, but some hackers later admitted that they sold information to those who had been offered more money.