US Justice Department Reports Russian Attempts to Hack Federal Agency Servers

On Thursday, October 3, the US Justice Department reported the seizure of 41 Internet domains that were used by Russian intelligence agencies and their representatives to hack internal servers of government agencies, including the Pentagon and the State Department, Reuters reports.

The ministry said in a statement that it, with the support of Microsoft, carried out an operation to take down 66 Internet domains used by the same hacker group. The domains seized were used by hackers linked to Russia's Federal Security Service.

“The Russian government carried out the scheme to steal sensitive information from Americans by using seemingly legitimate email accounts to trick victims into giving up their credentials,”— said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

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The Justice Department said the hackers used the domains in a phishing campaign aimed at gaining access to information from U.S. companies, former members of the U.S. intelligence community, current and former Defense and State Department employees, Defense Department contractors, and Energy Department employees.

The seized domains belonged to the Callisto Group hackers and their associates, which the Justice Department described as a unit of the FSB. The group, also known as Cold River or Star Blizzard, first came to the attention of Western intelligence agencies after an attack on the UK Foreign Office in 2016.

The Russian embassy has not yet commented on this information.

In December 2023, the Department of Justice charged two hackers associated with Cold River for attempting to break into computer networks in the US, UK, other NATO countries and Ukraine.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga