WASHINGTON: The United States Thursday indicted seven Russian intelligence officials on charges of computer hacking, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.

According to the indictment, all officers in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence agency, between December 2014 and May 2018, conducted persistent and sophisticated computer intrusions affecting US persons, corporate entities, international organizations, and their respective employees located around the world, based on their strategic interest to the Russian government.

Among the goals of the conspiracy was to publicize stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine, retaliate against, and otherwise delegitimize the efforts of international anti-doping organizations and officials who had publicly exposed a Russian state-sponsored athlete doping program and to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming that such athletes were using banned or performance-enhancing drugs, Department of Justice alleged.

"State-sponsored hacking and disinformation campaigns pose serious threats to our security and to our open society, but the Department of Justice is defending against them," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.

"Today we are indicting seven GRU officers for multiple felonies each, including the use of hacking to spread the personal information of hundreds of anti-doping officials and athletes as part of an effort to distract from Russia's state-sponsored doping program," Sessions said.

The Russians, he said, in this case allegedly targeted multiple Americans and American entities for hacking, from national anti-doping agency to the Westinghouse Electric Company near Pittsburgh.

"The actions of these seven hackers, all working as officials for the Russian government, were criminal, retaliatory, and damaging to innocent victims and the United States' economy, as well as to world organizations," FBI Director Christopher Wray alleged.

The seven Russian named in the chargesheet are Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, 41, Evgenii Mikhaylovich, Serebriakov, 37, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, 32, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, 30, and Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, 27, who were each assigned to Military Unit 26165, and Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov, 46, and Alexey Valerevich Minin, 46, who were also GRU officers.

The indictment alleges that defendants Yermakov, Malyshev, Badin, and unidentified conspirators, often using fictitious personas and proxy servers, researched victims, sent spearphishing emails, and compiled, used, and monitored malware command and control servers. </s> The Justice Department on Thursday announced criminal charges against seven Russian intelligence officers, accusing them in a sprawling indictment of hacking, wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering as part of an effort to distract from Russia’s state-sponsored doping program.

Three of the defendants were also charged in the hacking of US persons involved in the 2016 election, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division John Demers said during a news conference, but the current indictment does not arise out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s work.

According to the indictment, all seven defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military. They are accused of sophisticated cyberintrusions and the victims were anti-doping agencies and officials, sporting federations, and nearly 250 athletes.

In addition to anti-doping agencies, the GRU targeted others, including the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, a nuclear energy company in Pennsylvania.

The indictment alleges the GRU officers used spearphishing emails, fictitious personas and researched their victims.

Earlier Thursday, the Dutch government announced it had disrupted a GRU cyberattack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. </s> WASHINGTON – Seven Russian GRU intelligence officers were charged with hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the U.S. and around the world, Justice Department officials announced Thursday.

The criminal activity described in the 41-page indictment came in retaliation for people and organizations who revealed Russia’s doping program for its athletes — revelations that led to stripping dozens of OIympic medals from Russian athletes, according to Scott Brady, U.S. Attorney for western Pennsylvania.

The hacking that began in December 2014 and continued until at least May 2018 intruded into computers and networks of U.S. citizens and corporations, and international corporations and their workers around the world, officials said.

The conspiracy aimed at publicizing stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine and retaliate against the efforts of international anti-doping organizations and officials who had publicly exposed a Russian state-sponsored athlete doping program and to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming that such athletes were using banned or performance-enhancing drugs.

“This indictment alleges a conspiracy to use computer hacking to obtain non-public, personal health information about athletes and others in the files of anti-doping agencies and sporting federations in multiple countries, and to release that stolen information selectively, and sometimes misleadingly,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security. “All of this was done to undermine those organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympic and other games,"

Other targets of the conspiracy included a chemical-weapons lab in The Hague and Westinghouse, a nuclear-power company in Pennsylvania that provides power to Ukraine.

The charges were related to an intelligence operation against Russian agents in The Hague attempting to breach the cybersecurity of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which Dutch and United Kingdom officials announced Thursday. The prime ministers of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s behavior.

The latest charges follow indictments earlier this year against 12 Russian GRU military intelligence officers and 13 Russian nationals and businesses. Those stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election. GRU is an acronym for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

While the latest charges are not tied to Mueller’s investigation, some of the same GRU officers are charged, Demers said. The latest charges were investigated by the U.S. Attorney for western Pennsylvania, the FBI’s cyber division, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The Fancy Bear hacking group targeted athletes and anti-doping officials to reveal personal health information about them, according to Eric Welling, FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyber division.

All the officers were charged with money laundering for buying computer equipment with cryptocurrencies. Five of the officers were charged with aggravated identify theft. One, Ivan Segeyevich Yermakov, was charged with wire fraud for targeting Westinghouse employees for hacking.

The other six GRU officers charged Thursday are: Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, Alexey Valerich Mirin, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Evgenii Mikhaylovich Serebriakov and Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov.

Thursday’s charges followed the July indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers who were charged in a far-reaching hacking scheme that targeted the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The 11-count indictment alleged that Russians “engaged in a sustained effort” to penetrate Democratic Party repositories of information. The group also allegedly conspired to hack into computers of state election boards, secretaries of state and U.S. companies that supplied technology for elections.

But the indictments contained no allegations that the actions altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the election.

Because those Russian officials remain overseas, it is highly unlikely they will ever be prosecuted. But the U.S. action followed a practice of so-called “naming and shaming” foreign operations implicated in actions against this country.

The July charges followed a February case charging 13 Russian nationals and three businesses – including an internet firm tied to the Kremlin – with waging “information warfare against the United States.”

Assistant Attorney General John Demers (L) announces charges July 13, 2018, against 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking computers used by the Democratic National Committee, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (C) and Acting Principal Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan (R). </s> WASHINGTON – Seven Russian GRU intelligence officers were charged with hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the U.S. and around the world, Justice Department officials announced Thursday.

The criminal activity described in the 41-page indictment came in retaliation for people and organizations who revealed Russia’s doping program for its athletes — revelations that led to stripping dozens of OIympic medals from Russian athletes and banning that country's athletes from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The hacking that began in December 2014 and continued until at least May 2018 intruded into computers and networks of U.S. citizens and corporations, and international corporations and their workers around the world, officials said.

“In other words, Russia cheated,” said Scott Brady, U.S. Attorney for western Pennsylvania. “They cheated, they got caught, they were banned from the Olympics, they were mad and they retaliated. In retaliating, they broke the law, so they are criminals.”

The conspiracy aimed to publicize stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine and retaliate against the efforts of international anti-doping organizations and officials who had publicly exposed a Russian state-sponsored athlete doping program, officials said. Another goal was to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming that such athletes were using banned or performance-enhancing drugs, officials said.

“All of this was done to undermine those organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympic and other games," said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

Other targets of the conspiracy included a chemical-weapons lab in The Hague and Westinghouse Electric Co., a nuclear-power company in Pennsylvania that provides nuclear fuel to Ukraine.

The charges were related to an intelligence operation against Russian agents in The Hague attempting to breach the cyber security of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which Dutch and United Kingdom officials announced Thursday. The prime ministers of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s behavior.

The latest charges follow indictments earlier this year against 12 Russian GRU military intelligence officers and 13 Russian nationals and businesses. Those stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election. GRU is an acronym for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

While the latest charges are not tied to Mueller’s investigation, some of the same GRU officers are charged, Demers said. Also participating in the investigation were the FBI’s cyber division and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Besides the 250 individual athletes in 30 countries, targets included the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal, Canada; the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports in Ottawa, Canada; the International Association of Athletes Federations in Monaco; and the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The group known as Fancy Bears' Hack Team targeted athletes and anti-doping officials to reveal personal health information about them, according to Eric Welling, FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyber division. When the GRU officers couldn't hack computers remotely, they traveled to Switzerland, the Netherlands and Brazil to gain access to computers of traveling officials through hotel Wi-Fi systems, he said.

“The GRU is breaking traditional international norms and the law in using cyber tools and resources in the way that they have,” Welling said. “The charges reinforce this behavior is not acceptable, and violates international norms as well as U.S. criminal laws.”

Travis Tygart, CEO of U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said the charges provided a reassuring outcome for clean athletes everywhere, particularly the ones whose private information was revealed through the “despicable” hacking.

“These illegal and malicious acts were a desperate attempt to divert attention away from Russia’s state-sponsored doping program and were part of a broader scheme of corrupt and unethical behavior by the Russian government to manipulate international Olympic sport, of which the world now has the incontestable facts: a system that was abusing its own athletes with an institutionalized doping program has now been indicted for perpetrating cyber-attacks on innocent athletes from around the world while yet again trying to win by any means,” Tygart said in a statement.

All the officers were charged with conspiring to access computers without authorization, wire fraud and money laundering for buying computer equipment with cryptocurrencies. Five of the officers were charged with aggravated identify theft. One, Ivan Segeyevich Yermakov, 32, was charged with wire fraud for targeting Westinghouse employees for hacking through a technique called "spearfishing."

The other six GRU officers charged Thursday are: Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, 41; Alexey Valerich Mirin, 46; Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, 30; Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, 27; Evgenii Mikhaylovich Serebriakov, 37; and Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov, 46.

“We are fighting back to protect U.S. citizens and organizations from criminal cyber attacks funded by the Russian government,” Brady said. “These seven defendants are charged with the pervasive campaign of hacking, stealing private and sensitive information and publicizing that information to retaliate against Russia’s detractors and sway public opinion in Russia’s favor."

Thursday’s charges followed the July indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers who were charged in a far-reaching hacking scheme that targeted the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The 11-count indictment alleged that Russians “engaged in a sustained effort” to penetrate Democratic Party repositories of information. The group also allegedly conspired to hack into computers of state election boards, secretaries of state and U.S. companies that supplied technology for elections.

But the indictments contained no allegations that the actions altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the election.

Because those Russian officials remain overseas, it is highly unlikely they will ever be prosecuted. But the U.S. action followed a practice of so-called “naming and shaming” foreign operations implicated in actions against this country.

The July charges followed a February case charging 13 Russian nationals and three businesses – including an internet firm tied to the Kremlin – with waging “information warfare against the United States.”

Assistant Attorney General John Demers (L) announces charges July 13, 2018, against 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking computers used by the Democratic National Committee, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (C) and Acting Principal Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan (R). </s> The Justice Department on Thursday announced criminal charges against seven Russian intelligence officers, accusing them in a sprawling indictment of hacking, wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering as part of an effort to distract from Russia’s state-sponsored doping program.

Three of the defendants were also charged in the hacking of US persons involved in the 2016 election, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division John Demers said during a news conference, but the current indictment does not arise out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s work.

According to the indictment, the defendants — all members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military — engaged in a series of cyberattacks against anti-doping agencies and officials, sporting federations and more than 250 athletes in retaliation for the exposure of Russia’s state-backed doping program.

“All of this was done to undermine those organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympic and other games,” Demers said. “I hope that through today’s charges, which fall far from the electoral arena of our prior charges, we can further educate ourselves as to the scope of the Russian government’s disinformation and influence campaigns.”

Through the use of spearphishing emails, stolen credentials and other cyberintrusions, a group calling itself the “Fancy Bears’ Hack Team” publicized medical information and drug testing results of athletes and peddled a false narrative that certain athletes were using performance-enhancing drugs, prosecutors alleged Thursday.

When certain remote efforts failed to work, prosecutors detailed how the GRU hackers traveled in some instances using Russian Government-issued diplomatic passports in an attempt to gain access to Wi-Fi networks onsite.

Four of the names in the indictment match those given by Dutch authorities in connection with an alleged GRU cyberoperation against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international chemical weapons watchdog organization based in the Netherlands.

Thursday’s announcement comes after Mueller indicted 12 GRU officers in July for allegedly conducting a “sustained effort” to hack Democrats’ emails and computer networks. </s> The United States Department of Justice has charged Russian military intelligence officers with international hacking offences.

All seven defendants are officers in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the military intelligence agency of Russia's armed forces. They've been charged with offences including computer hacking, wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering.

The charges from the United States come as the UK and Australia blamed the Russian GRU for a number of recent global cyber attacks.

Some of the charges relate to attacks against the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in an effort to undermine the body following the exposure of a Russian state-sponsored athlete doping program.

Others are in connection with attacks against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons -- the body investigating the Novichok poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March this year. However, this hacking campaign was thwarted by the Dutch defense intelligence service

Spear-phishing emails, spoofed domains, fictitious identities and malware were all used in an effort to remotely steal credentials, which led to the leaking of private and medical information of 250 athletes from almost 30 countries.

In cases where remote attacks weren't successful, GRU officers were sent abroad to conduct hacking operations against hotel Wi-Fi networks used by anti-doping officials during the Olympic Games.

One of these saw officers deployed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August 2016, in an intrusion that resulted in an International Olympic Committee official's credentials being captured and used to gain unauthorised access to accounts.

Attackers also compromised equipment used in closed access Wi-Fi networks of a hotel hosting an anti-doping conference in Lausunna, Switzerland in Septmeber 2016. This compromised network was used to steal credentials and compromise members of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.

As part of the campaign, the GRU officers set up a Twitter account claiming to be the 'Fancy Bears' Hack Team and selectively released stolen information, which had often been modified in an effort to besmirch or undermine particular athletes.

According to the indictment, operations were running from December 2014 until at least May this year, and involved "persistent and sophisticated computer intrusions" based on strategic interest to the Russian government.

"The actions of these seven hackers, all working as officials for the Russian government, were criminal, retaliatory, and damaging to innocent victims and the United States' economy, as well as to world organizations," said said FBI director Christopher Wray.

"We worked closely with our international partners to identify the actors and disrupt their criminal campaign - and today, we are sending this message: The FBI will not permit any government, group, or individual to threaten our people, our country, or our partners. We will work tirelessly to find them, stop them, and bring them to justice," he added.

The defendants are all Russian nationals based in Russia and are Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, 41, Evgenii Mikhaylovich, Serebriakov, 37, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, 32, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, 30, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, 27 , Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov, 46, and Alexey Valerevich Minin, 46. They are all GRU officers.

Each defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, both of which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.

"We want the hundreds of victims of these Russian hackers to know that we will do everything we can to hold these criminals accountable for their crimes," said U.S. Attorney Scott Brady.

However, like the recent indictment of a North Korean hacker for WannaCry, it's very unlikely anything will come from this announcement -- Russia will not send its citizens to go on trial in the United States.
• Here's what happens during a social engineering cyber-attack (TechRepublic)
• Cyber defence: We'll hack back at attackers, says US </s> CLOSE

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and then Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, right, visit new headquarters of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) in Moscow, Russia, on Nov. 8, 2006. The U.S. Justice Department announced charges Oct. 4, 2018, against seven GRU officers. (Photo: DMITRY ASTAKHOV / POOL, EPA-EFE)

WASHINGTON – Seven Russian GRU intelligence officers were charged with hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the USA and around the world, Justice Department officials announced Thursday.

According to the 41-page indictment, the criminal activity was retaliation against people and organizations who revealed Russia’s doping program for its athletes – revelations that led to the stripping of dozens of Olympic medals from Russian athletes and a ban on that country's athletes from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The hacking that began in December 2014 and continued until at least May 2018 intruded into computers and networks of U.S. citizens and corporations and international corporations and their workers, the officials said.

“In other words, Russia cheated,” said Scott Brady, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania. “They cheated, they got caught, they were banned from the Olympics, they were mad and they retaliated. In retaliating, they broke the law, so they are criminals.”

The conspiracy aimed to publicize stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine the efforts of international anti-doping organizations, according to the charges. Another goal was to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming that they used banned or performance-enhancing drugs, officials said.

“All of this was done to undermine those organizations’ efforts to ensure the integrity of the Olympic and other games," said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

Other targets of the alleged conspiracy included a chemical weapons lab in The Hague, Netherlands, and Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear-power company in Pennsylvania that provides nuclear fuel to Ukraine.

The charges were related to an intelligence operation against Russian agents in The Hague attempting to breach the cybersecurity of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which Dutch and United Kingdom officials announced Thursday. The prime ministers of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s behavior.

Twelve Russian GRU military intelligence officers and 13 Russian nationals and businesses were indicted this year as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election. GRU is an acronym for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Though the latest charges are not tied to Mueller’s investigation, some of the same GRU officers are charged, Demers said. Participating in the investigation were the FBI’s cyberdivision and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Besides 250 athletes in 30 countries, targets included the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the World Anti-Doping Agency in Montreal; the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports in Ottawa, Canada; the International Association of Athletes Federations in Monaco; and the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The group known as Fancy Bears' Hack Team targeted athletes and anti-doping officials to reveal personal health information about them, according to Eric Welling, the FBI's deputy assistant director for the cyberdivision. When the GRU officers couldn't hack computers remotely, they traveled to Switzerland, the Netherlands and Brazil to gain access to computers of traveling officials through hotel Wi-Fi systems, he said.

“The GRU is breaking traditional international norms and the law in using cybertools and resources in the way that they have,” Welling said. “The charges reinforce this behavior is not acceptable and violates international norms as well as U.S. criminal laws.”

Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said the charges provided a reassuring outcome for clean athletes everywhere, particularly the ones whose private information was revealed through the “despicable” hacking.

“These illegal and malicious acts were a desperate attempt to divert attention away from Russia’s state-sponsored doping program and were part of a broader scheme of corrupt and unethical behavior by the Russian government to manipulate international Olympic sport, of which the world now has the incontestable facts: A system that was abusing its own athletes with an institutionalized doping program has now been indicted for perpetrating cyberattacks on innocent athletes from around the world while yet again trying to win by any means,” Tygart said in a statement.

All the officers were charged with conspiring to access computers without authorization, wire fraud and money laundering for buying computer equipment with cryptocurrencies. Five of the officers were charged with aggravated identify theft. One, Ivan Segeyevich Yermakov, 32, was charged with wire fraud for allegedly targeting Westinghouse employees for hacking through a technique called "spear-phishing."

The other six GRU officers charged Thursday are Aleksei Sergeyevich Morenets, 41; Alexey Valerich Mirin, 46; Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, 30; Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, 27; Evgenii Mikhaylovich Serebriakov, 37; and Oleg Mikhaylovich Sotnikov, 46.

“We are fighting back to protect U.S. citizens and organizations from criminal cyberattacks funded by the Russian government,” Brady said. “These seven defendants are charged with the pervasive campaign of hacking, stealing private and sensitive information and publicizing that information to retaliate against Russia’s detractors and sway public opinion in Russia’s favor."

The twelve Russian military intelligence officers indicted in July were charged with a far-reaching hacking scheme that targeted the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The 11-count indictment alleged that Russians “engaged in a sustained effort” to penetrate Democratic Party repositories of information. The group allegedly conspired to hack into computers of state election boards, secretaries of state and U.S. companies that supplied technology for elections.

The indictments contained no allegations that the actions altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the election.

Because those Russian officials remain overseas, it is highly unlikely they will ever be prosecuted. The U.S. action followed a practice of “naming and shaming” foreign operations implicated in actions against this country.

In February, 13 Russian nationals and three businesses – including an internet firm tied to the Kremlin – were charged with waging “information warfare against the United States.”

The good news is that the indictments show the United States is capable of doing very high-level attribution of those who attack it, down to their names and military units, said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer of CrowdStrike, a computer security company that tracks international attackers.

But the United States is also routinely attacked by China, Iran and North Korea, he cautioned.

“We see China as the most prevalent actor in terms of orchestrating attacks against U.S. and broadly Western organizations. We shouldn't lose sight of that as we talk about Russia – there are others out there who are also causing problems for our national security.”

Assistant Attorney General John Demers (L) announces charges July 13, 2018, against 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking computers used by the Democratic National Committee, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (C) and Acting Principal Deputy Attorney General Edward O'Callaghan (R). (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/04/justice-department-announces-indictments-7-russian-spies/1519074002/ </s> What just happened? It seems that Russia's cybercrimes stretch far beyond interfering with the 2016 US election: the DOJ has just charged seven Russian intelligence officers with offences that aren’t related to the Mueller investigation.

The US Department of Justice has charged officers from the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) with hacking, wire fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. They are alleged to have hacked the private or medical information of 250 athletes from almost 30 countries, along with US and international anti-doping agencies.

The attacks were said to be retaliation after Russia’s athletes were banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics following accusations of a state-sponsored doping program. Their aim was to damage the reputation of the Olympic organizations and spread misinformation that other athletes were doping.

The hackers, who are part of the notorious Fancy Bear group, also targeted the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague, which was investigating the Novichok nerve agent used on Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK in March, along with an alleged chemical attack in Syria by Russian-backed government forces.

"The indictment alleges that defendants Yermakov, Malyshev, Badin, and unidentified conspirators, often using fictitious personas and proxy servers, researched victims, sent spearphishing emails, and compiled, used, and monitored malware command and control servers," wrote the Department of Justice.

The Russian officers also targeted Westinghouse nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, though no additional details were revealed.

The DOJ statement followed allegations by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre that the Russian military intelligence service was behind indiscriminate and reckless cyber attacks.

Interestingly, though not entirely surprisingly, three of the seven officials named by the DOJ were also named in the Mueller investigation. </s> Six days after the US charged 12 Russian hackers with stealing and leaking DNC emails, a Microsoft executive says the same agency is targeting the midterm election.

A man walks past the building of the headquarters of the Russian General Staff's Main Intelligence Department (GRU) in Moscow on December 30, 2016.

The same Russian intelligence agency charged with hacking Democrats’ emails in 2016 has targeted at least three candidates running for election in 2018, a Microsoft executive said.



Speaking on a panel at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday, Tom Burt, the company’s Vice President for Customer Security and Trust, said that his team had discovered a spear-phishing campaign targeting three candidates running for election in 2018. Analysts traced them to a group Microsoft has nicknamed Strontium, which is closely tracked by every major threat intelligence company and is widely accepted to be run by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency.

Burt declined to name the candidates during the event, citing privacy concerns, and didn’t say which party they belonged to, but implied they were candidates of note and running for reelection.

“They were all people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint, as well as an election disruption standpoint,” Burt said.

On Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office announced charges against 12 GRU officers it accused of conducting a months-long campaign to hack Democrats in 2016, particularly those working to elect Hillary Clinton, and leaking what it found in an effort to hurt her candidacy. Those same hackers attacked the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that year, using the fictitious persona Guccifer 2.0 to release assessments of candidates in various House races.



The GRU’s tactics have rankled western intelligence agencies, which view hacking hacking politicians as standard spycraft, but leaking that information to be a major violation of norms. A hacker group from a second Russian intelligence agency had penetrated the DNC as early as 2015, but didn’t spread that information, and has avoided the kind of international condemnation aimed at the GRU.

GRU hackers are believed to be behind a number of global hack-and-leak operations aimed at entities adversarial to Russia, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 campaign and the World-Anti Doping Agency, whose reports led to Russia’s ban from the 2018 Olympics over its massive doping program.

In recent weeks, officials from the Department of Homeland Security have insisted that though they’re watchful of potential Russian hacking, they’ve seen no sustained campaign against election systems.

DHS has considered election equipment and voter registration databases critical infrastructure, and thus under its umbrella of protection, since the beginning of 2017. But while the tech industry has provided campaigns with some free tools, there is no such overarching body or regulation specifically protecting them. A number of Democratic campaigns told BuzzFeed News in March that they had received no cybersecurity advice in 2018.

When asked by BuzzFeed News, Microsoft also declined to address which parties it had seen targeted. A representative from the Republican National Committee didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A representative from the Democratic National Committee, Xochitl Hinojosa, didn't address whether any Democrats had been targeted, but told BuzzFeed News that “We saw the Russians attack our democracy in 2016 and we know they're a threat in 2018, 2020 and beyond. Unfortunately, the President refuses to acknowledge this serious threat to our country, and House Republicans are refusing to increase funding for election security.” </s> Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced grand jury indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking offenses related to 2016 elections.

Twelve Russian nationals were indicted for hacking into the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton presidential campaign in 2016, the Justice Department announced Friday.

The 12 defendants, all Russian intelligence officers, "engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the DNC and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton," special counsel Robert Mueller alleged in his indictment.

Because the Russian officials remain in Russia, it is highly unlikely that they will ever be prosecuted in the United States. Nevertheless, the U.S. action follows a practice of so-called "naming and shaming" of foreign government operatives implicated in actions against the U.S.

The intelligence officers, members of Russia's GRU, released the information under the names DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.

"The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said.

The group also conspired to hack into computers of state election boards, secretaries of State and U.S. companies that supplied software and other technology related to election administrations.

The 11-count indictment included charges of conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Federal prosecutors asserted that the Russian hackers corresponded with "several" Americans. Rosenstein said there was no evidence that the Americans were aware that they were corresponding with Russian intelligence officers.

Mueller charged that the purpose of the conspiracy was "to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, steal documents from those computers, and stage the release of the stolen documents to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election."

Still, the indictment also contained no allegations that the actions altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.

Rosenstein said he briefed President Donald Trump on the case earlier this week, prior to Trump's scheduled meeting with Putin in Helsinki on Monday.

The deputy attorney general said the announcement of the charges were made with "no regard to politics," adding that the evidence was "sufficient" to bring the case.

The indictment alleges the hacking efforts started on March 19, 2016. Hackers were able to access DCCC and DNC networks in April.
The U.S. Justice Department announces indictments of seven Russian GRU intelligence officers for hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the USA and around the world.