Britain accused Russian military intelligence on Thursday of directing a host of cyber attacks aimed at undermining Western democracies by sowing confusion in everything from sport to transport and the 2016 US presidential election.

In a British assessment based on work by its National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Russian military intelligence (GRU) was cast as a pernicious cyber aggressor which used a network of hackers to spread discord across the world.

GRU, Britain said, was almost certainly behind the BadRabbit and World Anti-Doping Agency attacks of 2017, the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016 and the theft of emails from a UK-based TV station in 2015.

“The GRU’s actions are reckless and indiscriminate: they try to undermine and interfere in elections in other countries,” said British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

“Our message is clear – together with our allies, we will expose and respond to the GRU’s attempts to undermine international stability,” Hunt said. Britain believes the Russian government is responsible for the attacks.

Though less well known than the Soviet Union’s once mighty KGB, Russia’s military intelligence service played a major role in some of the biggest events of the past century, from the Cuban missile crisis to the annexation of Crimea.

Though commonly known by the acronym GRU, which stands for the Main Intelligence Directorate, its name was formally changed in 2010 to the Main Directorate of the General Staff (or just GU). Its old acronym – GRU – is still more widely used.

It has agents across the globe and answers directly to the chief of the general staff and the Russian defence minister. The GRU does not comment publicly on its actions. Its structure, staff numbers and financing are Russian state secrets.

The GRU traces its history back to the times of Ivan the Terrible, though it was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution. Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said GRU officers used a nerve agent to try to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal, who was found unconscious in the English city of Salisbury in March. Russia has repeatedly denied the charges.

After the Skripal poisoning, the West agreed with Britain’s assessment that Russian military intelligence was to blame and launched the biggest expulsion of Russian spies working under diplomatic cover since the height of the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB spy, said on Wednesday that Skripal, a GRU officer who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service, was a “scumbag” who had betrayed Russia.

Britain said the GRU was associated with a host of hackers including APT 28, Fancy Bear, Sofacy, Pawnstorm, Sednit, CyberCaliphate, Cyber Berkut, Voodoo Bear and BlackEnergy Actors.

“This pattern of behaviour demonstrates their desire to operate without regard to international law or established norms and to do so with a feeling of impunity and without consequences,” Foreign Secretary Hunt said.

The United States sanctioned GRU officers including its chief, Igor Korobov, in 2016 and 2018 for attempted interference in the 2016 US election and cyber attacks.

“Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence organization, knowingly engages in significant activities that undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government,” the US Treasury said in March.

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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>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>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: 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>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>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>LONDON: The West has accused Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) of running what it described as a global hacking campaign, targeting institutions from sports anti-doping bodies to a nuclear power company and the chemical weapons watchdog.

What is GRU and what does it do?

What is the GRU?

Russia’s military intelligence service is commonly known by the Russian acronym GRU, which stands for the Main Intelligence Directorate. Its name was formally changed in 2010 to the Main Directorate (or just GU) of the general staff, but its old acronym – GRU – is still more widely used.

Its published aims are the supply of military intelligence to the Russian president and government. Additional aims include ensuring Russia’s military, economic and technological security.

The GRU answers directly to the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, and the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, each of whom are thought to have access to Russia’s portable nuclear briefcase.

Russia’s two other main intelligence and security services were both created from the Soviet-era KGB: the Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, and the Federal Security Service, or FSB.

What are the GRU’s capabilities?

According to a Western assessment of GRU seen by Reuters, the GRU has a long-running program to run ‘illegal’ spies – those who work without diplomatic cover and who live under an assumed identity for years until orders from Moscow.

“It has a long-running program of ‘illegals’ reserved for the most sensitive or deniable tasks across the spectrum of GRU operations,” the assessment said.

The GRU is seen as a major Russian cyber player.

“It plays an increasingly important role in Russia’s development of Information Warfare (both defensive and offensive),” according to the Western assessment.

“It is an aggressive and well-funded organization which has the direct support of – and access to – [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, allowing freedom in its activities and leniency with regards to diplomatic and legislative scrutiny,” according to the assessment.

The GRU also has a considerable special forces unit. They are the elite of the Russian military.

“I don’t like rankings but the GRU is in the top levels of this business,” Onno Eichelsheim, director of the Netherlands Defence Intelligence and Security Service, told Reuters. “They are a very real threat.”

What are Western claims about GRU?

– The United States sanctioned GRU officers including its chief, Igor Korobov, for cyber attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Russia denied meddling in the election.

– Britain said two GRU officers attempted to murder former GRU double agent Sergei Skripal with Novichok. Russia denied any involvement.

– Britain said GRU was behind the BadRabbit attack of 2017, the hack of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, and attacks on the computer systems of both the Foreign Office and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 2018. Russia said the accusations were fiction.

– The Netherlands said it caught four GRU cyber spies trying to hack into the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It said the same group, known as unit 26165, had targeted the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17.

– The United States charged seven GRU officers with plots to hack the World Anti-Doping Agency which had exposed a Russian doping program.

– GRU played a significant role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the conflict in Ukraine and the 2008 conflict with Georgia.

Note: The GRU does not have its own public web site and does not comment publicly on its actions. Its structure, staff numbers and financing are state secrets.

Russian spies trace their history back to at least the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th Century, who established a feared espionage service.

The GRU was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution. Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services, which saw it as a rival.

While the once mighty KGB was broken up during the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the GRU remained intact.

GRU officers played a significant role in some of the key junctures of the Cold War and post-Soviet history – from the Cuban Missile crisis to Afghan war and the annexation of Crimea.

The public was given a rare chance to see parts of the GRU’s Moscow headquarters when Putin visited it in 2006. He was shown taking part in shooting practice.</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 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.
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.