Charges laid against Russian GRU officers for Ukraine cyberattacks
6 September 2024 06:42
The federal prosecutor's office in Baltimore announced charges on Thursday against five Russian military intelligence GRU officers. They were allegedly responsible for a cyberattack on Ukraine's state institutions just before the 2021 invasion, as well as on the transportation and logistics of NATO countries supporting Ukraine.
The indictment published on Thursday updates a case filed in June against GRU civilian collaborator Amin Stigal for the WhisperGate malware attack aimed at destroying Ukrainian government networks in January 2021. The accused include the commander of the GRU hacker unit 29155, Yuri Denisov, and his subordinates Denis Denisenko, Dmitry Goloszoubov, Vladislav Borovkov, and Nikolai Korchagin.
As FBI agent Bill DelBagno, who is responsible for the case, stated during a press briefing, this attack — during which the Russians also stole and published sensitive data of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians — can be considered the "first shot" of the 2021 Russian invasion.
Multiple cyberattacks. Millions of dollars for the heads of Russian officers
In addition to that attack, the accused GRU officers were also responsible for a series of other subsequent cyberattacks, including on the transportation infrastructure of a Central European country supporting Ukraine in October 2022.
Although the document does not name the country, the description of the incident is similar to the one in a Microsoft report on a ransomware attack against Polish and Ukrainian transport and logistics companies from the same period. Microsoft reported at the time that the attack caused some damage.
Besides that incident, the hackers attempted to infiltrate networks related, among others, to infrastructure in 26 NATO countries, including the American National Security Agency (NSA).
In response to the charges, the State Department announced on Thursday a reward of up to $13.6 million CAD for information leading to the identification and location of members of the GRU cyber team. Information about them was also passed on to Interpol.
