The Department of Justice announced on Thursday that American authorities had taken control of numerous web domains that were utilized by Russian intelligence agents and their go-betweens to siphon off important data from government computers and email accounts in the United States.
The department accused Russia’s FSB security service unit, the “Callisto Group,” in a warrant that was unsealed this week of conducting a “ongoing and sophisticated spear phishing campaign” with the goal of breaking into victims’ computers and email accounts.
In 2023 prosecutors charged a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer and a co-defendant of conducting a spear phishing campaign against current and former members of the US intelligence community, defense contractors, and Energy Department locations between October 2016 and October 2022.
A federal indictment unsealed in California claims that Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko, the FSB officer, and Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets, who are both affiliated with the Callisto Group. And they allegedly used spoof email accounts that looked to be from legitimate individuals to trick victims into providing their login credentials in order to access their email accounts.
The two are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse.
According to the order, cybercriminals operating under Russian instruction stole “valuable information and sensitive United States government intelligence.”
The targets included U.S. military contractors, U.S.-based businesses, former and present employees of the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Energy, and former U.S. intelligence employees.
The Justice Department took control of 41 domain names on the internet and worked with Microsoft, the world’s largest computer company, to take down another 66 distinct names that belonged to the same organization.
The problem is that there are dozens of similar covert networks run by Russian hacker groups. And not only in the United States, but also in the EU, Canada, Israel, etc. And all of these countries need to monitor their networks on a daily basis for handing over to Russian special services, as well as to strengthen sanctions and isolate Russia.
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