Our fact-check team debunked fake information that Ukrainians from the Anonymous hacker group attacked the Pentagon’s official website on the National Flag Day of the United States because the Pentagon used the colors of the Russian flag for their greeting.
What happened?
On June 16, pro-Russian Telegram channels, including “Bear,” “Odessa for victory,” “Borderland of Belgorod,” and “Shaman Rukhu,” shared the fake screenshot from American media WIRED.
The post talked about Ukrainian hackers supposedly taking responsibility for an attack on the Pentagon’s official website on June 14. The presence of the Russian tricolor (Russian flag with three colors) in an image from the US Department of Defense greeting for American Flag Day was the reason for the attack, which supposedly cost nearly $120,000.
Analysis
First, we analyzed the presence of the Russian tricolor in the greeting image.
On June 14, the official Pentagon account on X social media shared a greeting (archive) with an image that included two elements that looked like the Russian flag.
“Let us honor the emblem of our nation and the stars and stripes that unite us all. As we display our nation’s flag and reflect on the values it represents, let’s celebrate the freedom, courage and resilience that makes our country great,” said the greeting.
John Pershing, an American army general, came up with the emblem Army Ground Forces (based on the stripes of blue, red, and white colors) at the beginning of the XX century to mark staff workers at the frontline.
According to the Institute of Heraldry, the rules for wearing the emblem require using blue on top.
The Pentagon has not officially commented on why they used the Russian tricolor in the greeting.
Second, we checked the WIRED magazine platforms, — media has an official website and X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok social media accounts.
There weren’t any posts about the Russian tricolor or hackers’ attacks on the Pentagon on June 14. The last publication related to the Pentagon was on June 3, and it refers to the possible cuts to Pentagon’s threat reduction efforts.
We analyzed the structure and content of the WIRED website and concluded that the screenshot provided by the pro-Russian Telegram channel is definitely fake. The official website has no “BREAKING NEWS” section, and the magazine publishes all security-related news, including about hacker attacks, in the “Security” section.
The fake screenshot also doesn’t include information about the authors and the date of publication.
The United States Department of Defense content and specific online services don’t record any information about a hacker attack on the Pentagon website on June 14.
Finally, we checked Anonymous, the group of activists and hackers, and found that there weren’t any publications about “taking responsibility for the attack on the Pentagon website.”
So, pro-Russian Telegram channels shared the news with fake images containing the WIRED logo. Earlier, they used the name of this media to promote their narratives.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhy
Translation to English: Elza Diachenko
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