The US Department of Justice suspects six Russian army officers of large-scale international hacks and disruptive cyber attacks. They are said to have attacked or attempted to influence the 2017 French elections, the 2018 Winter Olympics and American hospitals and businesses.
The people being charged are members of the Russian military intelligence agency GROe. According to the Americans, they have also tried to prevent the investigation of the nerve gas poisoning of the former spy Skripal and his daughter. The US also holds the six responsible for a cyber attack on Ukraine’s electricity grid.
Doping
In the charge states that the hackers were used to promote Russian international interests and to punish enemies. That would have happened, for example, at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, from which Russian athletes were banned for participating in a state-controlled doping program. The plan would have been to “punish” the organization of the Games for this.
Another attack in the indictment is the large-scale spread of malicious software in 2017. According to the US, this paralyzed computer systems worldwide. All in all, according to the US Public Prosecutor’s Office, this is the most disruptive and destructive series of attacks ever attributed to any group.
Olympics
The United Kingdom is also pointing the finger at the GROe. The British suspect the Russian military of wanting to disrupt the Olympic Games, which were to take place in Tokyo this year, with cyber attacks.
The organizations involved would have been attacked, even before the event was postponed due to the corona crisis. Technical details about this have not been released. British Foreign Secretary Raab spoke of cynical and reckless attacks.
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