Siberian man faces jail, accused of hacking Kremlin website

A Krasnoyarsk man faces up to four years jail for allegedly blocking President Vladimir Putin's website for one hour.

Internet users in Russia said they were unable to access the Kremlin website for up to an house before counter measures were taken. Picture: Kremlin website

A file on the 30 year old has been passed to a court in the city, a regional FSB secret services source told Rossiyskaya Gazeta. He was acting in support of the so called 'March of the Millions' by opposition activists last May, it was reported.
The man - who was not named - denies intentionally downing the Kremlin.ru website, said the newspaper.
'He is not pleading guilty, saying to the investigation that he was not aware that this programme was a malware and might block the website. But the investigation found that the defendant consciously used the hacking programme,' said the FSB source.
At the time reports said that the attack on the president's site on May 9, two days after Putin was inaugurated for the third time, was by hacker activist group Anonymous.
On an opposition Twitter account a message was posted declaring: 'Anonymous shuts down Kremlin's websites'.
Internet users in Russia said they were unable to access the Kremlin website for up to an house before counter measures were taken.
The attack was predicted in advance. It was not previously known that the hacking attack originated in Siberia.The criminal case was opened under part one of clause 273 of Russia's Criminal Code - 'Manufacturing, using and distributing of computer's malware'.
'All the relevant departments are taking the necessary measures to counteract attacks', said a spokesman for the Kremlin Internet security division at the time. 'This is routine work. There is always some external influence. Today we are witnessing a splash of activity (by the attackers).'
However they had 'failed to achieve their goal' of downing the site for any length of time, he said.