Four russian hackers with links to russian intelligence service FSB are indicted for the failed attempts to infiltrate energy companies, SPON:
The US government on Thursday published its indictments against four Russian citizens, whom it accuses of having hacked numerous energy companies around the world on behalf of the secret service FSB and the Ministry of Defense.
The charges relate to cases that date back a while. In the US, there are sealed, ready-made indictments that can be made public at any time. In this case, they are from June and August of the previous year. Now the US authorities thought the time had come to make them public.
These are two separate charges, but they have one thing in common: the hacking activities they describe are sophisticated and have been carried out over a long period of time. They are not aimed at short-term effects, but consist of targeted and well-prepared attacks in which malware is intended to be smuggled into the systems of companies in the critical infrastructure - in order to manipulate their operation on a »Day X« chosen by the attacker or even completely shut it down sabotage.
It is this type of cyber attack that is of greatest concern to security agencies around the world. An infiltrated energy infrastructure, which in extreme cases could be switched off by malicious actors, is considered a nightmare scenario.
