The United States announced a reward of up to $10 million for information on six Russian military intelligence service hackers. According to the State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, "these people engaged in hostile cyber actions on behalf of the Russian government against U.S. vital infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act."
The US Department of State has issued a request for information on six Russian officers (also known as Voodoo Bear or Iron Viking) from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces (GRU) regarding their alleged involvement in malicious cyberattacks against critical infrastructure in the United States. The linkages attributed are as follows :
- Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko has been linked to technical reconnaissance and spear-phishing efforts aimed at gaining illegal access to critical infrastructure sites' IT networks around the world.
- Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin, Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, and Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, are accused of developing components of the NotPetya and Olympic Destroyer malware used by the Russian government to infect computer systems on June 27, 2017, and Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, who are accused of developing components of the NotPetya and Olympic De.
- Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev is accused of inventing spear-phishing techniques and communications which were utilized by the Russian government to hack into critical infrastructure computer systems.
On October 15, 2020, the US Justice Department charged the mentioned officials with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for carrying out damaging malware assaults to disrupt and destabilize other countries and cause monetary damages.
According to the indictment, GRU officers were involved in attacks on Ukraine, including the BlackEnergy and Industroyer malware-based attacks on the country's power grid in 2015 and 2016. The folks are accused of causing damage to protected computers, conspiring to commit computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft by the US Department of Justice. According to the US Department of State, the APT group's cyber actions resulted in roughly $1 billion in losses for US firms.
The Rewards of Justice has established a Tor website at "he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad[.]onion" as part of the project, which may be used to anonymously submit reports on these threat actors or to communicate the information using Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp.
Recently, the Sandworm collective was linked to Cyclops Blink, a sophisticated botnet malware that snagged internet-connected firewall devices and routers from WatchGuard and ASUS. Other recent hacking efforts linked to the gang include the use of an improved version of the Industroyer virus against high-voltage electrical substations in Ukraine amid Russia's continuing invasion.
