U.S. Department of Justice reports disclosure of cyber espionage program linked to FSB
The U.S. FBI claims to have identified and neutralized a malware package used by the Russian Federal Security Service, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Today, the Department of Justice announced the completion of a court-approved operation, codenamed MEDUSA, aimed at dismantling a global peer-to-peer network of computers infected with sophisticated malware called Snake, which the US government attributes to a unit of the 16th Center of the Russian Federal Security Service.
"For nearly 20 years, this unit, called Turla, has been using different variants of Snake to steal confidential documents from hundreds of computer systems in at least 50 countries. These systems, in particular, belonged to the governments of NATO member states, journalists, and other entities of interest to the Russian Federation," the statement said. The FBI believes that after the theft, the documents were transferred via a special secret network.
Western officials suggest that the Russian government is a world leader in hacking and uses cyber espionage against foreign governments. Moscow has consistently denied that it is conducting hacking operations.
It is not yet known what documents Moscow managed to steal and whether this leak is equivalent to the previous leak of Pentagon documents, and whether there were any documents related to the war in Ukraine.
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