According to the Department of Justice, Russian hackers launched a "sophisticated spear phishing campaign" against American intelligence agents
On Thursday, the DOJ said that Russian government-affiliated hackers launched a "sophisticated spear phishing campaign" against American intelligence officials in an effort to sway British elections.
"Stole information used in foreign malign influence operations designed to influence the U.K.'s 2019 elections," the DOJ stated, adding that the operation had successfully hacked into computer networks in the U.S., the U.K., Ukraine, and other NATO member nations.
Following the indictment's return Tuesday by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed a federal indictment against two persons linked to the conspiracy on Thursday.
The two men in question are Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets and Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko, who was allegedly an agent of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), according to the Department of Justice. A conspiracy to conduct wire fraud and an offense against the United States are the charges against each of them.
The defendants were members of the so-called "Callisto Group," according to the DOJ, along with additional individuals who have not been accused.
From October 2016 through October 2022, at least, the indictment claims, hackers attacked the U.S. Intelligence Community, the Defense Department, the State Department, defense contractors, and DOE installations.
According to the DOJ, the spear phishing effort often used "sophisticated looking emails" to deceive victims into divulging their login credentials. This gave the hackers unrestricted access to the victims' email accounts.
The Department of Justice said that some of the emails seemed to have come from "spoofed" accounts in an effort to fool victims into thinking they were receiving legitimate emails relating to their personal or business lives. Emails would sometimes state that the recipient must log in using a specific URL because they had broken the account's terms of service. In reality, the users were giving hackers access to their accounts while they believed they were logging in, according to the DOJ.
U.S. authorities have promised to make Russia responsible and have used the charges as proof that Russia is still attempting to undermine democratic elections.
"As part of a concerted worldwide response, the United States government and its allies have joined forces to bring these conspirators to justice with today's indictment. internationally to identify and disrupt cyber espionage actors, particularly those seeking to obtain government information and create chaos in democratic processes," stated Ismail Ramsey, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, in a press release.
The indictment, according to Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, "reveals that the Russian government continues to target the critical networks of the United States and our partners," and he promised to hold the Russian government responsible.
"This malicious influence campaign targeting the democratic processes of the UK is another evidence of Russia's unwillingness to relent in its use of weaponized cyber espionage against these networks," Olsen said. "An even more resolute commitment to disrupting those activities and to hold accountable the individuals responsible" is the response the Department of Justice will provide to such activity.
