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By Sarah N. Lynch, Lisa Lambert and Christopher Bing
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday charged 7 Russian intelligence officers with conspiracy to hack computers and steal data from the Westinghouse Electric Co., a nuclear power company, and dogs. anti-doping guard, sports federations and an international body investigating the use of the system. Chemical Weapons.
Charges of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, as well as wire fraud and money laundering, occurred a few hours after the Dutch authorities declared that they had stopped the Russian intelligence agents' attempt to to hack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons based in The Hague in April.
This organization is in charge of investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria and the poisoning, in March 2018, of a former Russian military intelligence officer in the United Kingdom. .
The Justice Ministry said that one of the Russian officers conducted online searches on Westinghouse and its employees and stole the login credentials of Westinghouse employees for servers located in the United States, including staff working on the development of advanced nuclear reactors and new reactor technology units.
Westinghouse, which is located outside Pittsburgh, provides customers, including Ukraine, with the design of fuels, services and nuclear power plants. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Three of the seven Russian military officers charged on Thursday were charged in a separate case brought by the Special Advocate's Office Robert Mueller for his role in computer hacking activities aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election.
John Demers, head of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, said that although the defendants overlap, the case started on Thursday did not concern Mueller's office.
In the indictment, prosecutors claimed that one of the Russian officers, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, also indicted by Mueller for election-related piracy, had carried out a "technical reconnaissance" on Westinghouse in order to to access IP addresses, domains and network ports from November 2014.
In December 2014, hackers registered a fake website and website designed to emulate the company's website and sent phishing emails to at least five employees. Once people clicked on the spoofed domain and provided their connections, they were redirected to the original network.
On other occasions, according to the indictment, the conspirators also sent spear-phishing emails to the personal emails of Westinghouse employees. Two users of the account clicked on the malicious links.
The indictment alleges that the seven accused, all of whom are members of the Russian military intelligence service, sought to sow misinformation and to create a campaign of influence in retaliation for the denunciation. of a sports doping program sponsored by the Russian state.
The US Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency were among their hacking targets, as well as sports organizations such as the International Football Federation (FIFA) and athletes whose medical records were stolen and published.
Russia denied interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, contradicting a unanimous conclusion of all US intelligence agencies.
The seven accused are presumed to be in Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. The indictment could make it difficult to travel to other countries.
Prosecutors allege that hackers have gone to other countries to carry out hacking activities, sometimes with the use of diplomatic passports.
These efforts, known as "on-site" hacking operations or "close access", were conducted in cases where remote hacking from Russia did not provide "sufficient access" networks.
One such trip, for example, took place in Rio de Janeiro before and during the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Some of the stolen data was subsequently published under the false auspices of a hacktivist group known as "Fancy Bears Hack Team".
"Restricted access operations, like those exposed today, recall the considerable resources available to nation-states," said John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis at FireEye's cyber firm. .
While the motive behind the attacks by anti-doping groups and organizations investigating Russian poisonings was clearer, the decision to target Westinghouse was less obvious.
Ministry of Justice officials refused to provide additional details Thursday on the attacks on the company.
Efforts to penetrate its networks began in late 2014, some nine months after the removal of Ukrainian pro-Russian president Viktor Yanucovych from power during the Ukrainian revolution.
(Report by Lisa Lambert, Sarah N. Lynch and Christopher Bing, Writing by Chris Sanders, Edited by Jeffrey Benkoe and Cynthia Osterman)
