20 Oct
The US Justice Department says six Russian intelligence officers have been charged for orchestrating a series of global cyberattacks targeting government entities and other organizations between 2015 and 2019.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said on Monday, "We announce criminal charges against the conspiracy of Russian military intelligence officers who stand accused of conducting most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group."
The six members face a series of charges ... including conspiracy to conduct computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Officials say the attacks caused more than 10 billion dollars in losses.
According to the indictment, the accused hacked into the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and deleted data from thousands of computers related to the event.
It says the hackers also disrupted Ukraine's power supply in the middle of winter and harmed the operations of a health care system in the US state of Pennsylvania.
Officials also accuse the Russian members of disrupting the 2017 election in France through hacks that targeted political party officials.
British government officials who participated in the investigation said the attacks also targeted organizations involved in the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games before they were postponed.
The Tokyo Games were originally scheduled to be held this summer but were pushed back until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Justice Department officials say the timing of the indictment was unrelated to the upcoming US presidential election, but said voters should feel confident that their ballots will be counted properly.
NHK
