The US Division of Justice (DoJ) has charged a Russian nationwide, Amin Timovich Stigal, aged 22, for hacking into and destroying the Ukrainian authorities’s pc methods and information forward of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
On June 25, a federal grand jury in Maryland returned an indictment charging Stigal with conspiring with Russian Navy Intelligence (GRU) prematurely of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Stigal’s alleged targets included Ukrainian authorities IT methods and information with no army or defense-related roles and pc methods in international locations that had been offering help to Ukraine, together with the US.
Stigal Concerned within the ‘WhisperGate’ Cyber-Assault
In accordance with courtroom paperwork, Stigal was concerned in a January 2022 malicious marketing campaign led by the GRU.
The marketing campaign used a US-based firm’s providers to distribute malware often called WhisperGate to dozens of Ukrainian authorities entities’ pc methods and destroy these methods and associated information.
Read more: Ukrainian Government Websites Forced Offline in “Massive” Cyber-Attack
In a public assertion, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate commented: “Amin Timovich Stigal tried to leverage malware to assist the Russian army within the invasion of Ukraine. At this time’s indictment demonstrates the FBI’s unwavering dedication to fight malicious cyber actions by our adversaries, and we’ll proceed to work with our worldwide companions to thwart makes an attempt to undermine and hurt our allies.”
If convicted, Stigal faces a most penalty of 5 years in jail.
Nonetheless, the defendant remains to be at giant. The US State Division is providing a reward of as much as $10m for data on his location or his malicious cyber exercise by way of its Rewards for Justice program.
