Russian hackers target European websites after Pavel Durov arrested

Several French websites were the subject of multiple hacking groups after the creator of Telegram was arrested at Bourget airport outside Paris.

The founder of the mobile chat client, Pavel Durov, was the subject of increased social media activity with the #FreeDurov hashtag doing the rounds from supporters.

“As retaliation for the arrest of Durov, our group (we also invite other Russian hacker movements who want to support this initiative to cooperate) is announcing a week of attacks on French Internet portals from today,” said one spokesperson for the hackers.

The response from the Hacktivists was to target several French and European websites with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, as reported by CyberDaily. Sites affected included the European Court of Human Rights and France’s National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products.

The hackers are believed to be led by the Russian Army Cyber Team. They took responsibility for the targeted digital activity against the European Court of Human Rights, Syane, and the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products.

A translation of the message from Telegram attributed to the group shows their support for the jailed Telegram founder. Saying, “Unfortunately, for Telegram founder Pavel Durov, today is clearly not a good day. He was detained last night and faces (probably trumped-up) charges of various serious crimes.”

Russian Army Cyber Team was joined in their attacks by a list of notable of hacker groups. Active cyber and data hackers Such as RipperSec,VulcanSec, EvilWeb, GraveNet, and CyberDragon all used the #FreeDurov hashtag in attributing their actions.

The arrests have supposedly been attributed to the lack of regulation on ransomware and hacking groups conversing and creating communities on Telegram. There are 12 alleged criminal violations against Telegram according to French Prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

They include, according to the Prosecutors Office:

• Web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in an organized group
• Refusal to communicate, at the request of authorities, information or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed by law
• Criminal association with a view to committing a crime or an offense punishable by 5 or more years of imprisonment
• Laundering of the proceeds derived from organized group’s offenses and crimes,
• Providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without a certified declaration
• Providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration
• Importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration

Durov received French citizenship in 2021 and reportedly holds multiple nationalities and regional status. He will be indicted according to reports within the French media this week.

Image: Pixlr.

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