US announces reward for information on GRU hackers

The US State Department has announced a reward for information that will help identify or locate five hackers associated with the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Russian General Staff.

The announcement was made as part of the Rewards for Justice program. This is a State Department initiative that encourages the sharing of information that will help bring to justice individuals involved in terrorism, foreign interference in US elections, cyberattacks, and other activities that threaten US national security.

The announcement, published on the program's website, includes the names of five Russians – Vladislav Borovkov, Denis Denisenko, Yuri Denisov, Dmitry Goloshubov and Nikolai Korchagin, whom the State Department calls military intelligence officers assigned to military unit 29155 of the GRU, Voice of America reports.

They carried out cyberattacks and hacked computer systems, including Ukrainian government networks, the US State Department said. They reportedly used WhisperGate malware in the cyberattacks, which took place ahead of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"The GRU's malicious cyber activities also targeted U.S. critical infrastructure and included vulnerability scanning, network mapping, and identification of potential website vulnerabilities in U.S. critical infrastructure, particularly in the energy, government, and aerospace sectors," the announcement said. The aforementioned Russians were also reportedly responsible for attacks on critical infrastructure in "dozens of Western-allied countries." The U.S. State Department has called on anyone with information about the aforementioned Russians or individuals associated with them to contact the program's administrators through a special channel in the anonymous Tor network. The State Department has promised a reward of up to $10 million for reliable information. "The same amount was previously announced as a reward for information on the employees of the "Rybar" project – Russian media group, which was previously financed by the late businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.