US Govt Offers $10 Million Bounty for Information on Russian Hackers

Recently, the US government announced up to a $10 million bounty for information on six Russian military intelligence service hackers. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program said,

These individuals participated in malicious cyber activities on behalf of the Russian government against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

US Govt Offers $10 Million Bounty for Information on Russian Hackers

All six Russian officers are members of Sandworm (also known as Voodoo Bear or Iron Viking), an advanced persistent threat group that has been targeting entities in Ukraine since 2008 with the intention of establishing an unlawful, long-term presence in order to mine extremely sensitive data.

The hackers are officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation’s Armed Forces (GRU) and are as follows:

Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko has been linked to technical reconnaissance and spear-phishing efforts aimed at gaining illegal access to critical infrastructure sites’ IT networks around the world.

Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin, Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, and Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, are accused of developing components of the NotPetya and Olympic Destroyer malware used by the Russian government to infect computer systems on June 27, 2017, as well as Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, who is accused of developing spear-phishing techniques used by the Russian.

On October 15, 2020, the US Justice Department charged the aforementioned officials for carrying out damaging malware assaults with the goal of disrupting and destabilizing other countries and causing monetary damages.

Not long ago, the Sandworm collective was linked to Cyclops Blink, a sophisticated botnet malware that snagged internet-connected firewall devices and routers from WatchGuard and ASUS. Other recent hacking efforts linked to the gang include the use of an improved version of the Industroyer virus against high-voltage electrical substations in Ukraine in the midst of Russia’s continuing invasion.

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