'Unintended consequences': Officials warn amateurs against hacking Russia

Amateur hackers should not join the 'IT army of Ukraine', officials in government have said, over concerns that they could breach the law or start attacks that would eventually spiral out of control.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, thousands of hackers from around the world have come forward to show their support for Ukraine.

Many of them claim to have taken down Russian government websites, posted anti-war slogans on the home pages of Russian media outlets, and published information obtained from rival hacking groups. Last week, cyber actors claiming to represent the Anonymous hacker collective said they had breached Rosneft Deutschland - the German subsidiary of Russian energy company Rosneft - and stole 20 terabytes of data from its systems.