- Members of the "hactivist" collective Anonymous have messed with a superyacht believed to be owned by Russian President
Vladimir Putin . - The hackers changed the
yacht 's call sign to "FCKPTN" and the ship's destination to "hell."
The Anonymous "hactivist" collective has messed with the call sign of a superyacht said to be owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The group claimed credit on Tuesday for the hack, which involved changing the call sign of the vessel — named Graceful — to "FCKPTN" and altering the craft's destination to "hell."
The Anonymous group claimed credit for the hack with a tweet reading: "Now Putin's yacht is on the right track! ;) #FckPutin."
—Anonymous (@LatestAnonPress) March 1, 2022
At press time, tracking information on the vessel seen on Marinetraffic.com showed that the superyacht's call sign had been updated to "ANONYMO" with "FCKPTN" being the boat's destination instead.
The hackers said they managed to pull off the hack by getting into the Automatic Identification System, a vessel tracking system, per reporting from independent journalist Ryan Gallagher.
The hackers told Gallagher that they wanted to "put a little smile on some faces for a short period in these dark times."
The Graceful superyacht is a luxury craft believed to be worth around $100 million. The 270-foot yacht left Hamburg, Germany, abruptly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on Thursday.