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U.S. authorities have indicted two hackers linked to Russia ’s Federal Security Service ( FSB ) for allegedly carrying out a year - long cyberespionagecampaign targeting government official .
The Department of Justiceallegedon Thursday that Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko , an officer with the FSB intelligence service , and IT worker Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets attempted to compromise the calculator of employees at multiple U.S. government agencies , include the Department of Defense and Department of Energy , between October 2016 and October 2022 .
The bill of indictment also aver that the conspirators — known publicly by the name “ Callisto Group ” — targeted military machine and government officials , think - armored combat vehicle researchers and faculty , and journalist in the United Kingdom and elsewhere , using sophisticated lance - phishing emails that purpose to have hail from email providers suggesting users had violated terms of service .
These emails , which contain malicious domain created by the Callisto Group to harvest victims ’ credentials , activate the conspirators to gain unauthorized access and take “ worthful intelligence ” from victims ’ accounts , which has admit intelligence information associate to United States defense , strange intimacy , and security policies , according to the DOJ’sindictment .
info obtained “ from certain of these targeted account ” was also leak out to the press in Russia and the United Kingdom before of the U.K. election in 2019 , according to the DOJ , as part of a hack and leak disinformation military campaign .
Earlier on Thursday , the U.K. governmentannouncedthat it had also detected identified “ support unsuccessful endeavour ” by the FSB to interpose in U.K. political outgrowth and had sanctioned Peretyatko and Korinets for fishgig - phishing campaign and link up activity that “ resulted in unauthorized access code and exfiltration of sensitive data , which was signify to undermine UK organizations and more loosely , the UK politics . ”
The U.K. ’s National Cyber Security Center , part of GCHQ , said the hackers were “ almost sure enough subordinate to ” the FSB and had selectively leaked information they hold “ in line with Russian confrontation goals , including to weaken trust in political sympathies in the U.K. and likeminded states . ”
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The U.S. Treasury Department also herald sanctions against Peretyatko and Korinets , and the State Department is offering a $ 10 million reward for information leading to the identification and locating of the men .
Callisto Group , tracked as “ Star Blizzard ” by Microsoft and “ Cold Driver ” by Google ’s Threat Analysis Group , is well - eff for conducting long - run espionage campaign against NATO country , particularly the U.S. and the United Kingdom . In May 2022 , Google researchersattributeda hack - and - leak operation to the grouping that control a trove of electronic mail and documents stolen and leaked from high - levelBrexitproponents , including Sir Richard Dearlove , the former oral sex of the U.K. foreign intelligence service MI6 .
Meet the prolific Russian espionage crew hack on spymaster and lawmakers
