New Delhi, Mar 3 (IANS): The chief of Russias space agency, Roscosmos, has warned hackers attempting to disrupt the operation of the countrys satellites that their actions could be construed as a "casus belli, i.e., an event that justifies a war".

Dmitry Rogozin's comment came shortly after a cyberattack on Russia's RKA Mission Control Center. Speaking to a news channel on Wednesday, the official said that "those who are attempting to do this" should know that "it is a crime, which calls for a very severe punishment", RT reported.

Rogozin went on to stress that the disruption of operation of "any country's space forces is a so-called casus belli", which is a Latin term used to describe an event that either leads to or justifies the beginning of a war.

The Roscosmos chief also threatened the people responsible that his corporation would identify them, and hand the data over to Russian security services so that they could open a criminal investigation against the hackers.

Earlier, several Telegram groups claimed that the NB65 hacker group, which is allegedly linked to Anonymous, had successfully breached Roscosmos' communications with Russia's satellites, RT reported.

However, Rogozin dismissed the claims, saying that while there were attempts to penetrate the system, Roscosmos' defense managed to fend them off.