MCAD Maritime Cyber Attack Database
Year2022 |
MonthFebruary |
Reference number20220201 |
Impact areaVessel |
Incident locationKaliningrad |
Incident countryRussia |
Victim countryRussia |
Victim identityPutin's Yacht "Graceful" |
Victim TypeVessel |
MethodAIS Spoofing |
In February 2022, Vladimir Putin's £73 million superyacht was renamed "FCKPTN" by hacker group Anonymous, and making it appear as if it had crashed into Snake Island. The hackers hacked into the ship's navigational data and changed the ship's destination to "Hell," then to the little island where 13 Ukrainians stood up to a Russian battleship. According to Bloomberg reporter Ryan Gallagher they did it by manipulating the maritime AIS. In a tweet, Anonymous declared "cyberwar" on Russia's government.
