The United States Department of Justice has indicted seven Russian military intelligence officers for hacking the Olympic anti-doping agency and leaking athletes' records.
Prosecutors say the Russians also targeted a Pennsylvania-based nuclear energy company and an international organization that was investigating chemical weapons in Syria and the poisoning of a former GRU officer.
The indictment says the hacking was often conducted remotely. If that wasn’t successful, the hackers would conduct “on-site” or “close access” hacking operations with trained GRU members traveling with sophisticated equipment to target their victims through Wi-Fi networks
Four of the officers with Russia’ GRU military intelligence agency also were charged with targeting organizations probing Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons, including the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Three were indicted in July for allegedly conspiring to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
The indictment further exposes Moscow’s ongoing, widespread campaign to discredit western democracy and international institutions through disinformation and other measures. The aim, officials said, is to muddy or alter perceptions of the truth.
John Demers, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said the new indictment didn’t arise out of Mueller’s investigation. But he says the Russian hackers in the latest case allegedly used some of the same methods and had the same general goal: to spread disinformation and confusion.
The U.S. announcement follows the U.K.'s public condemnation Thursday of an ongoing Russian campaign of global cyberattacks.
The head of NATO expressed his support for the charges, while Russia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed them as “Western spy mania,” according to Russian media.
The flurry of activity on Thursday follows separate moves earlier this year stemming from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. In July, he obtained an indictment of 12 GRU members for hacking and leaking emails of Democratic officials and organizations. In February, officials announced an indictment of more than a dozen Russian “trolls” who spread information online and of several operatives who traveled to the United States and posed as Americans to whip up protests and stoke political divisions.
In the summer of 2016, the GRU hacked drug-test results from a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) data and posted confidential information about U.S. Olympic athletes, including tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, and gold medal gymnast Simone Biles. WADA publicly called out the Russian military agency for the information operation.
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“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 Scott Brady, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where the grand jury indicted the Russians.
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The GRU campaign ran from December 2014 until at least May 2018, targeting U.S. persons, corporations and international organizations based on their strategic interest to the Russian government, officials said.
Dutch and Canadian authorities also have identified Russian cyber attacks.
- The Netherlands has accused four Russians of plotting to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which had been probing the chemical attack on a Russian ex-spy in the UK.
- The UK government accused the GRU of being behind four high-profile cyber-attacks, whose targets included firms in Russia and Ukraine; the US Democratic Party; and a small TV network in the UK.
- The US said its anti-doping agency and the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse were targeted by Russian intelligence.
- Canada said "with high confidence" that breaches at its centre for ethics in sports and at the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency were carried out by Russian intelligence.
Added to this, the Dutch authorities have said a laptop seized from the four suspects in April was found to have been used in Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia.
In Malaysia, the Dutch said, it was used to target the investigation into the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014 over territory held by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.
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John Demers, US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, told a press conference in Washington that many of the attacks were aimed at "altering perceptions of the truth".
Read more:
The Latest: Anti-doping groups cheer indictment of Russians (AP)
U.S. indicts Russian spies in hacking campaign linked to Olympics doping scandal (WaPo)
Russia cyber-plots: US, UK and Netherlands allege hacking (BBC News)