US announces dismantling of Russia’s cyber espionage campaign

The US Department of Justice says it has been around for a long time A Russian cyber espionage campaign is underway Excavated. It was used to steal sensitive information from computer networks in dozens of countries, including the United States and other NATO members, the ministry said on Tuesday.

The public prosecutor linked the espionage operation to a unit Russian domestic secret service FSB. He accused hackers of stealing documents from hundreds of computer systems belonging to the governments of NATO member states, a journalist from a US news agency covering Russia and other select targets of interest to the Kremlin.

Malware snake

“For 20 years, the FSB has relied on Snake malware to conduct cyber espionage against the United States and our allies — and that ends today,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, head of the department’s National Security Division.

The targets of the spying were not specified in the court documents. US government officials described them as “with consequences”. Sensitive documents were successfully smuggled out of NATO countries, and US government agencies and other organizations in the United States were also targeted. According to the Ministry of Justice, the hackers operated from an FSB facility in Ryazan, Russia.

The program self-destructs

According to US sources, the snake has been under investigation for about a decade. Turla, the FSB unit said to be responsible for the malware, modified and refined Snake several times for continued use.

With the help of a warrant from a federal judge in Brooklyn, a high-tech operation was carried out over the past few days that resulted in the malicious plan to self-destruct. Central officials expressed confidence that the FSB would not be able to recover the bomb.

(DPO/Job)See comments