Rosreestr

Russia's Supreme Court Bans Silent Crow and Cyberpartisans BY as Extremist Organizations

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has officially recognized the hacker groups Silent Crow and Cyberpartisans BY as extremist organizations and banned their activities in Russia. The closed-door ruling, issued at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office, accuses both groups of conducting joint cyberattacks against Russian and Belarusian critical information infrastructure with the aim of destabilizing the political situation and achieving an unconstitutional change of government. Cyberpartisans BY are described as part of the Belarusian association Supratsiv, which allegedly seeks a violent overthrow of the constitutional order, and are linked to the banned Polk named after Kastus Kalinouski as well as Ukrainian military information-psychological operations units. Silent Crow, previously known as CyberWar and Cyber LegionsUA, is portrayed as a pro-Ukrainian collective of politically motivated hacktivists whose primary objective is to damage Russian state bodies, companies, and critical infrastructure. Both groups are held responsible for attacks on Aeroflot IT systems, Rostelecom databases, Rosreestr servers, and the Belarusian Railway infrastructure. Participation in or support for these organizations now carries legal liability under Russian law.