4 Russian government operatives indicted for allegedly hacking global energy facilities between 2012 and 2018
By Sean Lyngaas, CNN
The United States has indicted four Russian men, including three Russian intelligence officers, for alleged hacking campaigns that targeted hundreds of energy companies around the world from 2012 to 2018, the US Justice Department said Thursday.
The indictments cover activity from years ago but underscore Russian hacking capabilities against critical infrastructure at a time when US officials are on high alert for Russian cyberattacks and as President Joe Biden meets with European allies over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Biden on Monday publicly warned US business executives that Kremlin-linked hackers could target US organizations as the Russian military continues to suffer heavy losses in Ukraine. The FBI also advised the private sector last week that hackers associated with Russian internet addresses have been scanning the networks of five US energy companies in a possible prelude to hacking attempts.
In one indictment unsealed Thursday, three officers at Russia’s FSB intelligence agency are accused of hacking into energy firms, including some in the US, from 2012 to 2017 “in furtherance of the Russian government’s efforts to maintain surreptitious” access to organizations in the energy sector, the Justice Department said.
In the other indictment, an employee of a Russian Ministry of Defense research institute is accused of helping hack into a petrochemical facility in Saudi Arabia in 2017 and causing it to shut down twice. That hacking incident caused alarm in the cybersecurity industry at the time because the malicious code used in the incident targeted safety systems that prevent explosions in power plants.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hackers involved in that incident subsequently attempted to breach the computers of a US firm “that managed similar critical infrastructure entities in the United States,” the Justice Department said in a press release. That hacking attempt was unsuccessful, a senior Justice Department official told reporters Thursday.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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