A federal grand jury has charged six Russian nationals with a wide-ranging campaign of cyberattacks, including the highly destructive NotPetya malware and the 2018 attack on the Winter Olympic Games
represented Moscow’s first major election interference operation since its higher-profile intervention in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Monday’s announcement is notable more for its symbolism — a forceful rebuke of Russian aggression from an administration led by President Donald Trump, who routinely downplays it — than for its factual revelations. Experts had already linked all of the cyber campaigns described in the indictment to Moscow’s digital army.
“For these reasons,” he said, “they also share a common threat: Russia, a country that will stop at nothing to destroy those ideals and instill a sense of instability in its adversaries.” For the 2015 Ukrainian power grid attack, the hackers used malware dubbed “BlackEnergy” to steal user credentials for the industrial control systems that ran the grid. They then deployed malware known as “KillDisk” to wipe utility computers’ logs and cripple their operating systems. In 2016, they returned with even more sophisticated malware, dubbed “Industroyer,” which was specifically designed to hunt for and disrupt power grid control systems.
Heritage Valley Health System, a Pennsylvania healthcare company, discovered infections at “two hospitals, 60 physician offices, and 18 community satellite facilities,” according to the indictment.
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