Russian media sites replaced with ‘tombstone’ for war dead in mass cyber attack

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Russian media sites have been hacked and replaced with a “tombstone” for the war dead, in a mass cyber attack.

It is the latest high profile cyber attack made as part of the fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and took down a host of Russian media sites, including TASS and Kommersant.

Hackers appeared to associate themselves with Anonymous, the loose internet activist collective that has seen renewed activity as tensions have risen.

The message included the number “5,300”, the number of Russian troops that Ukraine claims to have killed.

It also includes anti-war messages, suggesting that Vladimir Putin has begun the war to “get into the history books”.

At the bottom were the words “Anonymous”, and the besuited figure that the group uses as a symbol.

The message also warns that it will eventually be deleted, and that attackers could be fired or imprisoned. “But we can’t stand it anymore,” the message reads.

Soon after it appeared, the post was deleted but the sites affected – which included many of Russia’s biggest domestic news sites – were still offline.