Hundreds of alleged Russian spies revealed in a data breach

A list with over 600 names allegedly details agents of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) operating in Europe.

Ukraine's spy service, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense (GUR MOU), published a list with the names of 622 individuals. According to the agency, individuals' names in the list are FSB officers that partake in 'criminal activities' in countries across Europe.

GUR MOU claims that individuals listed in the breach are registered at FSB's Moscow headquarters. The list contains names, current and previous addresses, mobile phone numbers, car registration plates, and, in some cases, debt levels.

The FSB is considered the main successor of the infamous Soviet spy agency, the KGB. Both organizations share the same headquarters in Moscow's Lubyanka Square. Vladimir Putin directly appoints the Head of the FSB.

Two high-ranking FSB officials, Sergey Beseda and Anatoly Bolukh were placed under house arrest earlier this month, allegedly over Russia's mishandling of its war in Ukraine.

Russian invasion

Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, kicking off a war all over the country.

In light of the attack, the hacker community started rallying to help Ukrainians. With Anonymous being the most prominent one, numerous hacker groups and researchers partake in various campaigns to help Ukraine. The country has also called hackers to join its 'IT Army.'

Cyber activists targeted Russian government websites, Russian state-controlled media outlets TASS, Kommersant, Izvestia, Fontanka, and RBC, pushing them offline. Russian carrier Aeroflot and major lender Sberbank were also experiencing outages and access issues.

Russian nuclear agency Rosatom and the country's space agency Roscosmos were breached by hacktivists protesting the war in Ukraine.

The German branch of the Anonymous collective also claims to have stolen 20 terabytes of data from the German arm of Rosneft, Russia's state energy company.

According to the United Nations, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has created the 'fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.' Over 10 million people were displaced due to the conflict, with over 3.8 million fleeing the country.