Russian Officers Indicted in Pittsburgh for Cyberattack
Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have indicted six Russian military intelligence officers, all current or former members of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, with computer attacks worldwide dating to 2015.
(TNS) — Federal prosecutors in
Among the victims in 2017 were
Mr. Brady and other officials said the Russian officers are part of the same unit that the
The
Officials said there are hundreds of other victims around the world.
The conspirators also are accused of using KillDisk and Industroyer to cause blackouts of the electric grid in
The six defendants are charged with conspiracy against
The case, investigated by the Pittsburgh
The defendants are Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko , 32; Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, 35; Pavel Valeryevich Frolov , 28; Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev , 29; Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko, 27, and Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin , 32.
In addition to the NotPetya attacks on businesses and the hacking of Ukrainian institutions and the
The defendants also are accused of perpetrating the 2018 spear-phishing campaign that targeted a Georgian media company and a 2019 attack on the Georgian parliament and other Georgian entities.
"No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as
Mr. Brady said that federal authorities have been working for two years to expose the Russian officers, saying the military officers carried out the most destructive cyberattacks in history.
"The crimes committed by Russian government officials were against real victims who suffered real harm," he said. "We have an obligation to hold accountable those who commit crimes -- no matter where they reside and no matter for whom they work -- in order to seek justice on behalf of these victims."
In the case of Heritage Valley, prosecutors said the NotPetya malware impaired the hospital's computers at its two hospitals, 60 offices and 18 community facilities. Mr. Brady said Heritage Valley lost its computer systems for cardiology, nuclear medicine, radiology and surgery for a week and its administrative systems for a month in 2017.
Federal agents were aided in the investigation by Google's
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Colville in
One of the defendants, Mr. Kovalev , was previously charged in 2018 in the
(c)2020 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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