Six Russians charged with large-scale hacks and NotPetya attacks

Justice in the US has indicted six Russians on suspicion of membership in the Sandworm group of state hackers. They are said to have been guilty of hacking campaigns against, among others, the Olympic Games and French President Macron.

The US is indicting the six for, among other things, computer hacking, fraud, identity theft and unlawful registration of a domain name. The six are said to be officers in Unit 74455 of GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit, also known as the Sandworm Team, Telebots, Voodoo Bear and Iron Viking.

The group is said to be responsible for, among other things, the NotPetya ransomware attacks of 2017, which affected companies worldwide and caused damage of one billion dollars to three affected companies alone, according to the US justice system.

Affected supermarket in Ukraine, photo: liveuamap.com

The US Department of Justice listing states that the group is also held responsible for attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure that took place from December 2015 to December 2016, including targeting electricity networks. Also, the state hackers hit French President Macron’s election campaign in 2017 and targeted the 2017 Winter Olympics charges against 2018, spearphishing campaigns against athletes, South Korean employees and the IOC. They allegedly tried to frustrate the opening ceremony with the Olympic Destroyer malware, among other things.

The Americans also cite hacking campaigns aimed at British investigations into the use of the Novichok poison and attacks on Georgian companies and government units in their charges. The US describes which of the six accused was responsible for which part of which attack.