FBI Messes Up Networks Russia Use to Steal Information From Other Nations
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday said it took down networks of computers that Russia uses to collect private information. It claimed that the Asian country uses the toll against at least 50 countries including NATO governments.
FBI Strikes a Chord
The latest move by the FBI is one of the most effective. It had a huge impact Russia’s domestic investigative agency, FSB as it is unable to carry out its operations of spying on military and diplomatic institutions in the US and other Western nations for almost two decades.
According to US authorities, the FBI cut off Russians’ access to a network of US computers that the hackers used to smuggle data around the globe back to Russia on Monday using a court order. A senior FBI official said in a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday that the FBI operation and US public cautions on the hacking tool would make it “difficult or untenable” for the FSB to use it again.
The US and its “Five Eyes” allies claimed in an advisory on Tuesday that FSB agents, for instance, used the hacking tool to “access and exfiltrate sensitive international relations documents, as well as other diplomatic communications” from an unnamed NATO nation.
Why Turla?
Experts generally concur that the Russian hacking operation known as Turla, which the FBI targeted, is one of the most skilled cyberspy organizations within the Russian intelligence services. Using Turla, Russia hacked US Central Command in 2008, and penetrated U.S. military networks in the mid- to late 1990s.
In recent years, hackers broke into the networks of parliaments and foreign ministries in Eastern Europe to gather information on Russian foes.
Researchers claim that in 2018, Turla used an Iranian hacking tool to enter the network of an unnamed Middle Eastern government.
According to Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, a researcher who has been following Turla for years, Turla agents are “true professionals.”
