Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation building in Moscow (Photo : TASS)
"The Jester," a famous American vigilante hacker, has defaced the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in revenge for Russia's unending series of cyberattacks on U.S. government, military and political institutions such as the Democratic Party.
He's hacked jihadist websites; penetrated communication forums of threat groups and identified potential terrorist threats to the U.S.
Russia has since restored the website, however. Called "the Batman of the internet" by some in law enforcement, The Jester said his latest patriotic gesture was triggered by the massive DDoS attack on the U.S. on Oct. 21 that almost took out the internet on the East Coast.
Some cybersecurity experts are blaming Russian state-sponsored hackers for this latest attack. Russian intelligence agencies have been accused by the federal government of hacking into Democratic National Committee emails and the sites of other Democratic Party-linked organizations, leaking damning information to sway the election away from Hillary Clinton and towards Kremlin-backed Donald Trump.
The Jester defaced the ministry's website on the same day the attack on the East Coast took place.
"Comrades! We interrupt regular scheduled Russian Foreign Affairs Website programming to bring you the following important message," wrote The Jester.
"Knock it off. You may be able to push around nations around you, but this is America. Nobody is impressed."
The Jester also included this joke on the hacked website" "Visitors are subjected to the ear-piercing sound of an American civil alert message -- that shrieking dial tone that accompanies emergency weather broadcasts."
The Jester also attacked Putin's during his takedown of the Russian website.
"Let's get real, I know it's you, even if by-proxy, and you know it's you," he wrote. "Now, get to your room. Before I lose my temper."
Russia's foreign affairs ministry, however, at first denied any defacing of its website took place but later changed its statement to claim The Jester had attacked an older version of its website. There is only one online version of the ministry's wesite.
"The website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, which had been reportedly penetrated by an American hacker, according to CNN, is and has been functioning normally," said a ministry spokesperson. This person earlier admitted the "website has been hacked."
The ministry noted its website is "subjected to regular attacks, which skyrocketed after 2013." according to the official.
"We are talking about the old site, which is no longer in operation," said the spokesperson, who said it's unclear exactly what happened or whether a hack had taken place.
