'Most destructive in history': the United States accused Russian hackers of cyberattacks around the world
On Monday, October 19, the US Department of Justice announced the trial of six Russian GRU officers accused of participating in a series of hacking and malware deployments to attack infrastructure in other countries, elections and other actions aimed at advancing Russia's interests. writes ABC News.
Six alleged hackers have been accused of involvement in computer incursions "designed to support the Russian government's efforts to undermine, retaliate or otherwise destabilize" Ukraine, Georgia, the French elections, the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games and international efforts to hold Russia accountable for using a nerve agent Newbie in a foreign land.
Several members of the same military group were previously charged with their involvement in Russia's attempts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, according to the Justice Department, although the October 19, 2020 charges do not relate to U.S. election interference.
US officials at a virtual press conference at the Department of Justice described the hacking campaign as one of the "most destructive and costly cyber attacks in history," using "some of the world's most destructive malware today."
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers argued that the charges prove and explain why the US should ignore Russia's recent proposal for a cyber reset between the two countries.
“This indictment exposes Russia's use of its cyber capabilities to destabilize and interfere in the domestic political and economic systems of other countries, providing a cold reminder of why its proposal is nothing more than dishonest rhetoric, cynical and cheap propaganda,” Demers said.
On the subject: Russian hackers leaked data of millions of American voters to the darknet
Some of the malware deployed by the officers, prosecutors said, included Killdisk, Industroyer and NotPetya, believed to be the most costly and destructive cyber attack in history, which resulted in nearly $ 1 billion in losses for the three victims identified in indictment, including the Heritage Valley Health System in Pennsylvania.
“The attack caused the inaccessibility of patient lists, medical records, medical examination files and laboratory records,” the US Department of Justice said in a press release. “Heritage Valley lost access to its critical computer systems (such as those related to cardiology, nuclear medicine, radiology and surgery) for approximately one week and administrative computer systems for almost a month, posing a threat to public health and safety.”
The group also allegedly participated in a spear-phishing campaign targeting the 2018 Winter Olympics, launching what officials dubbed an "Olympic Destroyer" malware attack during the opening ceremony, which deleted data from thousands of computers supporting the games.
“The conspirators, embarrassed by international sanctions related to the Russian doping program, i.e., cheating, took it upon themselves to undermine the games,” Demers said. “Their cyberattack combined the emotional maturity of a petulant child with the resources of a nation-state.”
Demers was later asked at a press conference if the US had any intelligence that the GRU might try to carry out similar operations with regard to the upcoming elections.
“As for the upcoming election, we have seen nothing that would cause us to doubt what we have said repeatedly and what the intelligence community has said repeatedly—Americans must be confident that their vote for a particular candidate will count for that candidate,” Demers replied.
On the subject: A whole special operation: how the FBI arrested a Russian hacker in the USA
The State Duma responded to the US charges of cyberattacks at the Olympics
The accusations by the United States and Great Britain against the "Russian employees of the GRU" in the alleged cyber attacks on the Olympic Games in Korea and Japan "are part of the information war against Russia." This was stated by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on international affairs Dmitry Novikov, reports "Lenta.ru" with reference to "RIA Novosti".
According to him, the laws of such confrontation require constant feeding with facts or pseudo-facts, which is what happens in this case. The MP noted that Western countries have put forward new accusations about old stories, and supposedly they have some kind of evidence base. However, Novikov emphasized that, as in the case of the Skripals and the incident with Alexei Navalny, all of this would be exposed rather quickly.
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