US charges Russian intel officers in major cyberattacks

The US justice department announced indictments on Monday of six Russian military intelligence officers in connection with major hacks worldwide, including of the Winter Olympics and elections in France as well as an attack in 2017 aimed at destabilising Ukraine that spread rapidly and was blamed for billions of dollars in damage.
Prosecutors said the suspects were from the same Russian unit that conducted one of the Kremlin’s major operations to interfere in the 2016 American election, the theft of Democratic emails. They attacked the 2017 French presidential elections; targeted British authorities investigating the poisoning of a Russian former intelligence operative and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea; and hacked the Ukrainian parliament, finance ministry and electrical grid, according to court documents.
The case marked another effort by Trump administration officials to punish Russia for its meddling in other countries’ affairs. The charges did not address 2020 election interference in the US.
“No country has weaponised its cyber capabilities as maliciously as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite,” said the assistant attorney general for national security, John C Demers.
Prosecutors said the suspects worked for Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, commonly referred to as the GRU. Known among cybersecurity analysts as Fancy Bear, the unit led the 2016 campaign to steal Democrats’ emails and help make them public, embarrassing Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the final stretch. One of the suspects charged in the newly unsealed indictments, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, was indicted two years ago over his suspected role in the 2016 election meddling. It was unclear whether the suspects will stand trial for the charges. Russia is unlikely to hand them over to be prosecuted.