The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A

tion — that the material had been

disseminated.

The targeting of the organiza-

tions investigating the attempted

assassination of Skripal did not

result in apparent compromises,

but took place as Britain an-

nounced it had identified the poi-

son used as a military-grade nerve

agent, Novichok, a class of chemi-

cal weapons developed in the for-

mer Soviet Union and Russia.

Although none of the defen-

dants is in custody, Justice De-

partment officials say the indict-

ment educates the American pub-

lic and the international commu-

nity about Moscow’s aims, sends a

message to others that “there’s no

safe haven abroad,” and offers

support to those who have been

hurt.

“We want to stand behind the

victims that have been targeted by

this group,” said a department

official, who spoke on the condi-

tion of anonymity because the

person was not authorized to

speak on the record. “Victims

should not have to face foreign

governments and their intelli-

gence services alone.”

The other defendants charged

Monday are Yuriy Andrienko, 32,

Sergey Detistov, 35, Pavel Frolov,

28, Artem Ochichenko, 27, and

Petr Pliskin, 32.

[email protected]

[email protected]

not do so under the Russian ban-

ner or display the flag on their

uniforms.

Demers said the Russians

showed “the maturity of a petu-

lant child” in choosing to attack

the 2018 Games. That malware,

dubbed “Olympic Destroyer,” de-

leted data from thousands of com-

puters supporting the Games,

rendering them inoperable, U.S.

officials said. The authors of that

software tried to make it look like

the work of North Korea, but U.S.

investigators and computer ex-

perts have said it was Russian.

The GRU attempted to repli-

cate its 2016 success in hacking

and leaking emails to disrupt the

U.S. election by attempting a simi-

lar feat in France in 2017, officials

said, but its effort fizzled when

media organizations that re-

ceived the emails refrained from

reporting on them because of a

mandatory news blackout on the

eve of the election.

Nonetheless, the indictment

shows that the GRU was trying for

a while to get the hacked material

placed, evidently without success.

According to the charges, from

April 12 through April 26, 2017, a

GRU-controlled social media ac-

count contacted various French

individuals offering them access

to internal Macron campaign doc-

uments. Macron reported on

May 6 — the day before the elec-

damages, officials said.

It infected computers at dozens

of hospitals, doctors’ offices and

medical facilities in western

Pennsylvania as well as at a large

drugmaker and a FedEx subsid-

iary, which collectively suffered

nearly $1 billion in losses, officials

said.

One U.S. pharmaceutical firm

spent more than half a billion

dollars to fix the problems caused

by NotPetya, officials said.

The hack of a company sup-

porting the 2018 Winter Olympics

came in apparent retaliation for

the International Olympic Com-

mittee’s ban on participation by

the Russian team after the IOC

found evidence of widespread

doping by Russian athletes, offi-

cials said. Although individual

athletes were allowed to compete

in the Winter Games, they could

dark and cold,” Demers said.

Hackers also deployed mal-

ware against Ukraine’s Finance

Ministry and State Treasury Serv-

ice in late 2016, disconnecting the

treasury’s automated payment

system and temporarily disabling

the Finance Ministry’s telecom-

munications infrastructure, the

indictment said.

In 2017, U.S. officials said, the

Russian military launched a more

costly attack against Ukraine, one

that quickly spread to computer

systems around the world. That

malware, dubbed “NotPetya,” is

considered by many security ex-

perts to be the most destructive

cyberattack ever unleashed. Dis-

guised as ransomware ostensibly

demanding money, NotPetya act-

ed more like a forest fire, torching

computer networks as it spread

and inflicting billions of dollars in

that “time and again, Russia has

made it clear they will not abide

by accepted norms and instead

they intend to continue their de-

structive and destabilizing cyber

behavior.”

The timeline of Unit 74455’s

activities dates back to at least

2015. According to the indict-
      ment, the alleged hackers un-
      leashed wave after wave of com-
      puter attacks on Ukraine — a
      former Soviet state engaged in
      ongoing conflict with Russia and
      a perennial target for Moscow.
      In late 2015 and 2016, the al-
      leged hackers launched computer
      attacks against Ukraine’s electric
      grid, officials said.
      In the 2015 attack, the GRU
      tunneled into three electric distri-
      bution systems and disrupted cir-
      cuit breakers remotely — the first
      cyberattack to cause a power out-
      age, said Robert M. Lee, chief
      executive of Dragos, a cyber firm
      specializing in critical infrastruc-
      ture. A year later, the Russians
      targeted a transmission company,
      employing more sophisticated
      malware designed specifically to
      interfere with electric grids, Lee
      said.
      “These attacks turned out the
      lights and turned off the heat in
      the middle of the Eastern Euro-
      pean winter, as the lives of hun-
      dreds of thousands of Ukrainian
      men, women and children went

systems that year.
But the new indictment does
not charge any Russians with at-
tempting to interfere in this year’s
contest, and officials said the an-
nouncement was not timed to the
current political schedule.
Rather, the six Russians stand
accused of what Justice Depart-
ment officials say is the single
most disruptive and destructive
series of cyberattacks ever attrib-
uted to one group. The indict-
ment, like others before it, is an
effort, officials say, to pull the veil
back on how Moscow has sought
to punish or retaliate against de-
tractors of the Russian Federation
— whether they are former Soviet
states, European nations or the
United States.
“No country has weaponized its
cyber capabilities as maliciously
and irresponsibly as Russia, wan-
tonly causing unprecedented col-
lateral damage to pursue small
tactical advantages and to satisfy
fits of spite,” Assistant Attorney
General John Demers said in an-
nouncing the indictment.
On the heels of the U.S. an-
nouncement, the British govern-
ment levied its own accusation,
saying the same GRU unit sought
to hack individuals and organiza-
tions involved in the 2020 Sum-
mer Olympics and Paralympic
Games that were due to take place
in Tokyo. Foreign Secretary Domi-
nic Raab condemned the effort as
“cynical and reckless,” and said
Britain will continue to work with
its allies “to call out and counter”
malicious attacks.
Russian officials dismissed
Monday’s developments.
“The new allegations of cyber-
attacks aimed at interfering are
another step to discredit Mos-
cow,” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of
the State Duma Committee on
International Affairs, told the In-
terfax news agency. “Such state-
ments have never been accompa-
nied by strong evidence — it’s all
in the category of ‘highly likely.’ ”
The charges read like a Top 10
list of cyberattacks and attempts,
which authorities say were con-
ducted by a team known as Unit

74455. Cybersecurity researchers
       have dubbed it the Sandworm
       Team.
       In 2016, Unit 74455 worked in
       tandem with another GRU team,
       Unit 26165, to carry out the hack
       of Democratic computers and
       leak of emails ahead of that year’s
       election in 2016. Unit 26165 con-
       ducted the intrusion, officials de-
       termined, while their colleagues
       at Unit 74455 set up a website,
       DCLeaks, to display hacked
       emails. The GRU also leaked the
       emails to WikiLeaks, whose dis-
       closure drew far more attention
       than the one on DCLeaks.
       Although officials said Mon-
       day’s indictment was not a specif-
       ic warning to Moscow to avoid
       interfering in this year’s election,
       they said it serves as a “general”
       warning that such activities are
       not deniable.
       “Americans should be confi-
       dent that a vote cast for their
       candidate will be counted for that
       candidate,” Demers said.
       FBI Deputy Director David
       Bowdich said the charges show

RUSSIA FROM A

Six Russian o∞cers c harged in high-profile cyberattacks

ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A poster shows the s ix wanted Russian military intelligence officers as Assistant Attorney General John Demers speaks Monday during a news conference at the Justice

Department announcing the indictment. With him are FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, second from right, and FBI Special Agent M ichael Christman.

“No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities

as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia,

wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage

to pursue small tactical advantages and

t o satisfy fits of spite.”

John Demers, assistant attorney general

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