The US Department of Justice, the FBI and international allies discovered and dismantled a global Russian cyber weapon.
This is what US Attorney Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray said During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Too many spies in the embassy
The cyber weapon was the so-called botnet, which infected thousands of electronic devices around the world. It is said that the global robots were under the control of the GRU – the Russian military intelligence service.
– Thanks to close cooperation with our international partners, we have been able to detect the infection of thousands of network devices. We were then able to eliminate the GRU’s control of these units before using robots as a weapon, Attorney General Garland said.
– Avoid penalties
The US authorities opened the press conference by announcing the indictments of the great wealthy and friend of Putin, Konstantin Malofeyev.
“This is the first time that the United States has targeted a preliminary ruling after the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Attorney General Garland said during a news conference.
Media mogul Malofeyev has been under Western – and US in particular – sanctions since 2014, and he is accused of evading and trying to evade these sanctions.
Putin’s daughters are punished
It is clear that Malofeyev repeatedly violated these penalties in the years following the sentence. By doing so, his media companies were able to help spread Russian propaganda, Lisa Monaco, the US deputy attorney general, said during the press conference.
Ukraine accuses Malofeyev of creating and financing illegal paramilitary groups in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
– We’ll find you
Earlier this week, the US authorities, with the help of the Spanish authorities, seized the mega yacht “Tango”, owned by oligarch Victor Vekselberg, a close ally of Putin.
Because of his close relationship with the Russian president, Vekselberg has been under sanctions by the United States since 2018.
The poison of Russian horror: – Putin is terrified
The noose was tightened even more after the invasion of Ukraine, and many countries wrote that they no longer wanted him as a guest Dagbladet Børsen last week when they visited the luxury house of Vekselberg in Switzerland.
Then Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a stern warning to the oligarchs, who are now trying to evade US and Western sanctions:
– It doesn’t matter how far your yacht sails. It doesn’t matter how well your money is covered. It doesn’t matter how well your malware is created and your activities covered: The Department of Justice will use all means to find you, disrupt your malicious plans, and hold you accountable, Garland said.
90 billion damage
Malicious bots have primarily infected network devices in businesses and small businesses.
The Department of Justice and the FBI believe the bots’ intent was to carry out a so-called DDoS attack, a denial of service attack.
He does most of the offenses
A DDoS attack is used to flood a website or other resource on the web, the effect is that you cannot access that page or resource, According to nettvett.no, It is operated by NorSIS, a Norwegian non-profit organisation.
Had the Russian robots succeeded in their alleged plans, they could have caused about $10 billion in damage, just under $90 billion, according to the FBI.
“Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer.”
