Serbia targets Anonymous hackers group

Some users of the social Twitter network, who claim to be part of the international hackers' group, Anonymous, claimed responsibility for the collapse of the official website of the Army of Serbia, several days after Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq warned him that they had targeted him.

The Serbian Army website was offline on the morning of January 5th. The users were shown a message informing them of a problem, because the server on which the website was located was not communicating.

Later, during the day, web site access normalised for users from Serbia.

Hours ago, a Twitter account under the name Anonymous informed the Serbian Army website of the fall, with a warning to Serbia's president, not to underestimate the group.

The Anonymous hackers' group is decentralised, has no formal guidance, and no official Web site or account on social networks. A Twitter search, for example, features thousands of accounts whose users are represented as members of this group, but it is impossible to determine whether they really are.

Anonymous claims he is performing actions by political obedience and activism. The public usually recognizes this group from their white masks, with a smile, representing the character Guy Fawkes, an English rebel from the XVIth century, who became known thanks to Alan Moore and his graphic novel “V for the Countries”.

Vuchy Video

Initially, a video in which a man, with a characteristic mask of the Anonymous hackers group, addressed Vuciki in a threatening tone, was published on December 29th on Twitter and on the video platform, YouTube.

Another video, where the president of Serbia was threatened, was also distributed by an account claiming to be linked to the Anonymous group. However, close proximity to the group has not been possible to verify or officially confirm.

In recent months, hackers, who claim to be part of Anonymous, have criticised Vuciqiqi for failing to impose sanctions on Russia, as well as for close co-operation with him. Serbia, though a candidate for membership in the European Union, refuses to harmonise its policy with that of the European bloc and sanction Russia.

Belgrade and official Moscow have traditionally close bilateral relations.

Russia supports Serbia in its policy of not recognising Kosovo's independence, which it considers a former province of its own and undermines its membership in international institutions.

If you do not stop dangerous actions in Kosovo, the people of Kosovo will not be left without support”, the group says Anonymous to the president of Serbia, stressing that it is active worldwide and that it is not a group of hopeless people who can easily be ignored.

A few hours after the video was released, Vuciq appeared on the Instagram social network. We're getting ready to fight anonymous”, he wrote in the legend of the photograph, where he was seen playing with two dogs.

This centre collects and exchanges information on risks within ICT systems, warns and advises people who manage these systems, as well as the public in Serbia.

Apart from the aforementioned threats, other activities of the Anonymous group have not been recorded so far”, the national computer response team of Serbia has said, in a written response to REL, to the question of whether, in addition to the video in which the masked man addresses Vuciki with a threatening tone, there have been previous threats and attacks by the Anonymous group.

REL has tried to hear from the Office of the High Technology Prosecutor if this is a serious threat, as well as whether some of the recent attacks by hackers are related to these threats, but she has not wanted to comment on the case.

The REL, too, has made efforts to learn more about the functioning problems of Serbia's Army site by the Ministry of Defence, but has not received answers until the release of this text.

The Bezbedan Balkan Forum, which records all resource attacks in Serbia in recent months, says some official websites are facing DDoS attacks.

Previous Messages

Threats from accounts connected to the Anonymous group were reported on social networks even on December 20th.

“We are ready to attack Serbia for destabilisation across the Balkans”, said in a Twitter post, labeled #Op Serbia, in which it was called for a hacker attack on Serbia.

The publication of data from Russian Army members, Russian Central Bank officials, Russian space agency Roskosmos, and Russian oil and gas companies (Gazregion, Gazprom) has been recorded.

Anonymous has blocked the websites of companies doing business with Russia, despite sanctions, and has managed to publish images from battlefields in Ukraine in Russian media.