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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 20 OcTOber 2020
6 Russian military officers charged in vast hacking campaign

By ERIC TUCKER the U.S. Attorney for the that a vote cast for their Emmanuel Macron. hacks had harmful impacts
Associated Press Western District of Pennsyl- candidates will be counted The controversy known on quality-of-life for every-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The vania, where the 50-page for that candidate." as the "Macron Leaks" in- day citizens. The attacks in
Justice Department an- Ukraine, for instance, dis-
nounced charges Monday rupted the power supply
against Russian intelligence in the middle of winter for
officers in a string of global hundreds of thousands of
cyberattacks that targeted customers, officials say.
a French presidential elec- And the global malware
tion, the Winter Olympics in attack known as NotPetya
South Korea and American harmed the operations of
businesses. The case impli- a health care system that
cates the same Kremlin unit serves tens of thousands
that interfered in the 2016 of people in western Penn-
U.S. elections, but is not sylvania, causing work sta-
related to the November tions to be locked, hard
vote. drives to be encrypted and
The indictment accuses leaving laboratory records
the six defendants, all said and other files inaccessible.
to be current and former Robert Lee, a security re-
officers in the Russian mili- searcher who helped un-
tary intelligence agency cover the malware used in
known as the GRU, of one of the Ukraine hacks,
hacks that prosecutors say said U.S. and European po-
were aimed at furthering litical leaders should have
the Kremlin's geopolitical done more at the time to
interests and in destabiliz- call out Russia and make
ing or punishing perceived clear that attacks on pow-
enemies. All told, the at- er grids are unacceptable.
tacks caused billions of dol- But Lee, CEO of security firm
lars in losses and disrupted Dragos, also welcomed the
a broad cross-section of A poster showing six wanted Russian military intelligence officers is displayed before a news indictment as an important
life, including health care conference at the Department of Justice, Monday, Oct. 19, 2020, in Washington. message before the U.S.
in Pennsylvania, a power Associated Press presidential election about
grid serving hundreds of American officials' resolve
thousands of customers to fight back against at-
in Ukraine and a French indictment was filed. The hacking targets de- volved the leak of over tacks on elections and civ-
election that saw the late- "Time and again, Russia has scribed in Monday's case is 20,000 emails linked to ic infrastructure.
stage disclosure of hacked made it clear: They will not diverse, with the indictment Macron's campaign in the "This is a broad signal from
emails. abide by accepted norms, fleshing out details about days before his victory. The U.S. intelligence to say,
The seven-count indict- and instead, they intend to hacks that in some instanc- involvement of bots raised 'We're watching you and
ment is the most recent in continue their destructive, es had already received questions about the possi- we're willing to burn our
a series of Justice Depart- destabilizing cyber behav- significant attention for the ble involvement of Vladimir resources to burn your re-
ment prosecutions of Rus- ior," said FBI Deputy Direc- havoc they had caused. Putin and the Russian gov- sources,'" Lee said. "Lead-
sian hackers, often working tor David Bowdich. It accuses the officers, for ernment. ing up to the election, I
on behalf of the govern- The indictment does not instance, of hacking into The leaks, which gained think that's an important
ment. Past criminal cases charge the defendants in the 2018 Winter Olympics huge media attention in signal to send."
have focused on targets connection with interfer- in South Korea after Russia France, were shared by The six defendants face
including internet giant Ya- ence in American elec- was punished by the Inter- WikiLeaks and several alt- charges including conspir-
hoo and the 2016 presiden- tions, though the officers national Olympic Commit- right activists on Twitter, acy to conduct computer
tial contest, when Russian are part of the same mili- tee for a vast doping con- Facebook and others. fraud and abuse, wire fraud
hackers from the GRU stole tary intelligence unit that spiracy. Other attacks targeted in- and aggravated identity
Democratic emails that prosecutors say interfered According to the indict- ternational investigators theft. None is currently in
were released online in the in the 2016 U.S. election. ment, the hackers con- looking into into the sus- custody, but the Justice
weeks before the election. One of the six charged in ducted a malicious soft- pected nerve agent poi- Department in recent years
The attacks in this case are the case announced Mon- ware attack during the soning of former Russian Ser- has eagerly charged for-
"some of the most destruc- day was among the Rus- opening ceremony in Feb- gei Skripal and his daughter eign hackers in absentia
tive, most costly, most egre- sian military intelligence ruary 2018 that deleted in the United Kingdom, as in countries including Rus-
gious cyber attacks ever officers charged with hack- data from thousands of well as the country of Geor- sia, China and Iran with the
known," said Scott Brady, ing in special counsel Rob- computers related to the gia, where roughly 15,000 goal of creating a message
ert Mueller's investigation event and left them inoper- websites were defaced. of deterrence.
into Russian election inter- able. Russia tried to blame "In many cases," the in- "No country has weapon-
ference. it on North Korea, the offi- dictment says, "the Con- ized its cyber capabilities
The timing of the indict- cials said. spirators replaced website as maliciously and irrespon-
ment was unrelated to the Another attack was aimed home pages with an im- sibly as Russia, wantonly
upcoming election in the at disrupting the 2017 presi- age of a former Georgian causing unprecedented
U.S., said Assistant Attorney dential election in France president, who was known collateral damage to pur-
General John Demers. He through hacks that target- for his efforts to counter sue small tactical advan-
said that despite ongoing ed local government enti- Russian influence in Geor- tages as fits of spite," said
warnings of Russian interfer- ties, campaigns and po- gia, along with the caption, Demers, the Justice De-
ence in the election, Amer- litical parties, including the 'I'll be back.'" partment's top national se-
icans "should be confident party of current President Beyond that, though, the curity official.q