U.S. charges Russian intelligence officers in several high-profile cyberattacks

Source: Washington Post

The United States on Monday unsealed criminal charges against six Russian intelligence officers in connection with some of the world’s most damaging cyber attacks, including disruption of Ukraine’s power grid and releasing a mock ransomware virus — NotPetya — that infected computers globally causing billions of dollars in damage.

The alleged hackers are all members of the same military intelligence agency — the GRU — which was previously charged in connection with efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. But the new indictment does not charge these members with U.S. election interference.
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The charges lay out a breathtaking series of attacks and attempts attributed to the group, also known as Unit 74455 and which cybersecurity researchers have dubbed the Sandworm Team. That group, authorities say, also hacked computers supporting the 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul, hacked and leaked emails of individuals involved in French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in 2017, and targeted the international and British organizations investigating the poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal in 2018 in Britain.
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In particular, it infected computers at dozens of hospitals, doctors’ offices and medical facilities in western Pennsylvania as well as a large drugmaker and a FedEx subsidiary, which collectively suffered nearly $1 billion in losses, officials said.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-cyberattacks-election-interference/2020/10/19/51a84208-1208-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html