ANDUnited States charged five Russian military intelligence agents on Thursday for their alleged involvement in cyberattacks on the civil infrastructure in Ukraine before the Russian invasion.
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According to the deputy attorney general Matthew Olsenmembers of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU carried out a cyber campaign against Ukraine known as “WhisperGate”.
“The WhisperGate campaign included attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and computer systems that were completely unrelated to military or national defense,” Olsen told a news conference.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent William DelBagno said the cyberattack in January 2022 “could be considered the first shot in the war.”
His goal was, according to him, paralyze Ukraine’s government and critical infrastructure by attacking financial systems, agriculture, emergency services, healthcare, and schools.
It was not limited to Ukraine, Olsen said, but involved computer systems in the United States and other NATO countries that support Ukraine.
In June, a Russian civilian, Amin Timovich Stigal22, was charged in the United States with conspiring to hack and destroy computer systems for his alleged role in “WhisperGate.”
Ukrainian soldiers on the front line (file photo). US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent William DelBagno said the cyberattack in January 2022 “could be considered the first shot of the war.”
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Reward for his capture
Stigal and the five members of the Russian GRU remain at large, and the State Department has offered a $60 million reward for information leading to their arrest, or $10 million for each.
The US Department of Justice called WhisperGate a “cyberweapon designed to destroy.”
Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine.
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It allowed patients’ medical records to be leaked and websites to be modified to read: “Ukrainians! All information about you has become public, be afraid and expect the worst.”
The hacked data was put up for sale on the Internet.
US prosecutor Erek Barron said the accused GRU officers were members of unit 29155 of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
Unit 29155, responsible for foreign operations, is accused, for example, of the attempted poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom in 2018.
On Wednesday, US authorities adopted a series of measures, including criminal charges and sanctions, in response to attempts to interfere in the US elections, which they attribute to Russia.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced two actions: the seizure of 32 domain names used in a “campaign to influence the outcome of the US presidential election” conducted under the authority of the Russian presidential administration, and the prosecution of two executives of the state-funded Russian media outlet RT.
Stigal and the five members of the Russian GRU remain at large, and the State Department has offered a $60 million reward for information leading to their arrest, or $10 million for each.
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