"Cyber war"

US judiciary indicts several Russian GRU hackers

According to the FBI, the scale of Russian crimes "cannot be ignored."

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

The US judiciary has brought charges against several members of the Russian military intelligence service GRU. They are accused of being behind a large-scale hacker attack on the Ukrainian government in January 2022, shortly before the Russian invasion of the country, according to the US Department of Justice. 

The five GRU employees are accused of participating in a conspiracy together with a Russian civilian to hack into the computer systems of the Ukrainian government, steal data and pass it on before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"The defendants did this to raise concerns among Ukrainian citizens about the security of their government systems and personal information," it said. They later attacked computer systems in other countries that supported Kiev, including the US and other NATO countries.

The Russian civilian had already been charged in the case in the USA, the five members of the Russian military have now been added.

"Prelude to the war in Ukraine"
A representative of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that the attack at the time could be seen as a prelude to the war in Ukraine. The cyber criminals had sent out a message with their attack to scare the Ukrainians. One month later, the Russian military invaded Ukraine. "This type of cyber warfare will not be tolerated," said the FBI representative. "The scale of Russian crimes cannot be ignored."

Bounty on their heads
It is not clear where the six Russians are currently located, US law enforcement officials said. The indictment will go to the international police organization Interpol. If the men are in Russia, they are now being held there. If they were elsewhere, they could no longer feel safe.

The USA is also offering a bounty of ten million dollars (around nine million euros) each for information on the six men and for tips to track them down.