United States: Six Russian intelligence officers indicted for global cyber attacks

American justice revealed on Monday that it had indicted six Russian military intelligence agents for global cyber attacks between 2015 and 2019 from an army building dubbed The Tower, in Moscow.

REUTERS / Kacper Pempel / Illustration / File Photo

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Six hackers from Russian military intelligence were indicted on October 19 by Federal Court in Pittsburgh in the United States.

The indictment describes, over 50 pages, the computer attacks perpetrated over the past five years by these men, including those against La République en Marche in 2017.

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It is the most destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group of hackers, according to the American justice system.

These six hackers who are between 27 and 35 years old, are accused of having carried out their operations between 2015 and 2019 for the benefit of Russia. 

The list of charges is long.

According to the indictment, the hackers first launched an attack on a Ukrainian electricity grid, which deprived the population of heat in the middle of winter.

They are also accused of carrying out seven attacks

, a few days before the 2017 presidential election. Thousands of internal documents had leaked onto the internet at the time.

These hackers are also responsible for the phishing campaign that targeted the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018. Russian athletes were unable to participate due to doping charges.

But the American action remains symbolic.

The six agents do not risk much since none of them are on American soil.

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• United States

• Cybercriminality

• Russia

• Justice