Good to know. Are any of them within reach so that they can be arrested, or is this just a bit of long distance harrassment?
The accused, who are agents of a Russian military intelligence agency known as GRU, allegedly used various cyber tactics, including deploying destructive malware with the purpose of furthering the Russian government’s interest to destabilize and interfere with the political and economic systems of other countries, the Justice Department (DOJ) said.The GRU is the same agency that was allegedly involved in hacking efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Among those targeted includes Ukraine’s electric power grid, Ministry of Finance, and State Treasury Service; French President Emmanuel Macron’s political party and French politicians; hosts, participants, partners, attendees, and the IT systems of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics; organizations and entities investigating the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal; Georgian companies and government entities; and businesses and medical facilities in the United States.
"No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said during a presser on Oct. 19 announcing the charges.
According to the indictment, the hackers deployed "some of the world’s most destructive malware to date"—such as KillDisk, Industroyer, and NotPetya—which caused widespread damage, including blackouts in Ukraine and disruption to thousands of computers used to support the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The men have been charged with conspiracy to conduct computer fraud and abuse, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, damaging protected computers, and aggravated identity theft. Each defendant is charged in every count in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh.
The department said several of the men were previously charged for their roles in allegedly interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Demers said the allegations should be evidence into why the United States shouldn’t accept President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...’s offer for a cyber "reset" between the two countries. The agreement would require both counties to provide guarantees not to engage in cyber-meddling in each other’s elections.
The DOJ said the attacks caused nearly $1 billion in losses to three U.S. victims, including the Heritage Valley Health System in Pennsylvania. The men allegedly deployed the NotPetya malware, which caused "the unavailability of patient lists, patient history, physical examination files, and laboratory records."
"Heritage Valley lost access to its mission-critical computer systems (such as those relating to cardiology, nuclear medicine, radiology, and surgery) for approximately one week and administrative computer systems for almost one month, thereby causing a threat to public health and safety," according to a department statement.
Other U.S. targets included TNT Express B.V., which is a FedEx Corp. subsidiary, and a large pharmaceutical manufacturer.