CIVØ was founded in 2016 by an independent collective of security researchers from Eastern Europe. The group gained international notoriety in 2017 after the "Grey Mirror" operation — a series of sophisticated breaches into US government databases including Pentagon and CIA systems. CIVØ has never cooperated with any state actor and operates purely as a digital resistance entity. Since 2018, the group has operated exclusively within the .onion network, offering services only to verified clients. The group is known for its strict operational security, zero-logging policy, and asymmetric encryption protocols.
The United States intelligence community first identified CIVØ after the 2017 Pentagon data leak.
The group remains unclassified and operates outside any jurisdiction.