The chief of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, has warned hackers attempting to disrupt the operation of the country’s satellites that their actions could be construed as a “casus belli – that is, an event that justifies a war.”
Dmitry Rogozin’s comment came shortly after a cyberattack on Russia’s RKA Mission Control Center. Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel on Wednesday, the official said that “those who are attempting to do this” should know that “it is a crime, which calls for a very severe punishment.”
Rogozin went on to stress that the disruption of operation of “any country’s space forces is a so-called casus belli,” which is a Latin term used to describe an event that either leads to or justifies the beginning of a war.
The Roscosmos chief also threatened the people responsible that his corporation would identify them, and hand the data over to Russian security services so that they could open a criminal investigation against the hackers.
Earlier, several Telegram groups claimed that the NB65 hacker group, which is allegedly linked to Anonymous, had successfully breached Roscosmos’ communications with Russia’s satellites.
However, Rogozin dismissed the claims, saying that while there were attempts to penetrate the system, Roscosmos’ defense managed to fend them off.
Since February 24, when Moscow started a war against Ukraine, websites of the Kremlin, Russian ministries, banks, and media – including RT – have been targeted by hacker or DDoS attacks. Anonymous declared a “cyber war” on Russia on the day Moscow’s troops and military hardware invaded Ukraine.
Explaining the need for the military action, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was seeking to “demilitarize and denazify” the Eastern European country, as well as to protect from persecution the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass republics. Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed these claims as merely a pretext to invade a sovereign country, alleging that Moscow’s endgame is the installation of a pro-Russian puppet regime in Kiev.