Hackers set the intended destination of Putin’s $100 million yacht to “hell”
They also changed the boat’s call sign to “FCKPTN.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to hell — or at least his yacht is. On Tuesday, hacking group Anonymous took credit for messing with the call sign and location of a multi-million dollar superyacht associated with Putin, altering its call to “FCKPTN” and setting its target destination to “hell.”
The modified information now appears on maritime tracking sites like Marinetraffic.com. The hackers have reportedly swapped the information multiple times, at one point changing the ship’s call sign to “ANONYMO,” as well.
The hack doesn’t really have any affect other than providing a little laugh, which the hackers freely admitted, stating they wanted to “put a little smile on some faces for a short period in these dark times.” While it’s probably not even on Putin’s radar, it’s at least nice to imagine him being annoyed by the besmirching of his ship’s good name.
The ship’s real name is Graceful, and the 270-foot, tri-deck monstrosity is estimated to have cost about $100 million to build. It had been chilling in a harbor in Hamburg, Germany, until it abruptly left once Russia invaded Ukraine to avoid getting impounded by the German government. Now it’s supposedly hanging out on the coast of Kaliningrad, in the Baltic Sea, and it’s unlikely that it’ll get to dock anywhere outside of Russian water any time soon. For a billionaire authoritarian who is used to just doing whatever he wants, being forced to landlock his fancy yacht just might be hell indeed.
