US Seizes 41 Russian Intelligence Domains Involved In Hacking Government Sites

Illustration of hackers (photo: VIDA)

JAKARTA - The United States Department of Justice said it had seized 41 internet domains used by Russian intelligence agents to hack several local government websites including the Pentagon and the State Department.

The confiscation of 41 internet domains today reflects the ongoing cyber strategy of the Justice Department, using all tools to disrupt and deter state-sponsored cybercriminals, Lisa Monaco said in an official statement on Thursday, October 3.

According to him, the Russian government is running this scheme to steal sensitive information from Americans and use an email account that appears legitimate to trick victims into revealing account credentials.

Assistant Attorney General, Matthew G. Olsen, of the Department of Justice's National Security Division said they had cooperated with private parties such as Microsoft, to deal with this cyber threat.

The confiscated domain was used by the Callisto Group, an operating unit under the Center 18 of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is suspected of carrying out cyber attacks such as theft of information and destruction of protected computers.

The group is running a spear-phishing campaign to access US government email accounts to gain illegal access to department or agency-owned computers in the United States for classified information.

At the same time, Microsoft is also filing a lawsuit regarding 66 internet domains used by this group, which are tracked as "Star Blizzard" between 2023-2024. They are targeting more than 30 entities including journalists, thinkers and NGOs.

In December 2023, two perpetrators linked to Callisto, Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko and Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets, were charged with hacking computer networks in the US and its allied states. The investigation was carried out by the San Francisco FBI, while prosecutions were handled by the US Attorney General's Office for the Northern District of California.

Currently, the San Francisco FBI Field Office is investigating the case. Meanwhile, the US Attorney's office for California's Northern District and the National Security Cyber Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division are suing the case.