'Even if we go into nuclear winter, I know I tried to help': A volunteer hacker on waging cyber war

Robin* remembers the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine very clearly. "It was like watching Hitler’s invasion of Poland live on television," they said.

The head of cybersecurity at a major company in Stockholm, Robin had a deeply-rooted suspicion of Russia and a particular set of skills they wanted to put to use to help Ukraine.

In the months since the invasion, the Swede joined the ranks of a large guerrilla network of global hackers who are taking on Russia from their keyboards. Due to the illegal nature of their actions, they spoke to Euronews Next on the condition of anonymity.

Robin’s involvement began on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. They were added to several Signal groups that gathered highly-skilled cybersecurity professionals in Europe to discuss the cyber developments in the unfolding war.

But when the invasion took place, Robin wanted to do more than talk.

"For me, that was important; knowing that through all this until now, I have done something," they told Euronews Next, looking back on their actions earlier this year.

"Whatever happens, even if we go into nuclear winter, I know I tried something to help".

As a penetration tester, someone who is hired to test system vulnerabilities by hacking into them directly, Robin said they wanted to take direct action against Russia in the wake of the invasion.

"I noticed someone in one of these groups wrote something oddly specific, so it seemed clear they had connections to Ukraine," Robin said.

"I decided to just go for it and posted that I’m willing to do something offensive, and asked if anyone is doing anything offensive in here".

Shortly after, they were contacted by a person known only as "PR,"* who wanted to get a sense of what kind of skills Robin could bring