The United States on Friday introduced a $ 10-million praise for records on a Russia-primarily based totally hacker, the primary time any such bounty has been provided for a cyber actor.
In a bounty introduced below the Rewards For Justice (RFJ) program, the United States State Department sought records on Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh, whom it accused of hacking into the pc structures of refineries withinside the US and out of doors.
It stated Gladkikh performed these “malicious offensive cyber operations” as an worker of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (a.k.a. “TsNIIKhM”), in its Applied Development Center, with different co-conspirators.
“The RFJ, that’s administered with the aid of using the Diplomatic Security Service, is providing a praise of up to $10 million for records main to the identity or region of Gladkikh or another individual who, even as performing at the route or below the manipulate of a overseas government, aids or abets a contravention of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which might also additionally consist of participation in malicious cyber sports towards U.S. important infrastructure,” the State Department notification stated.
According to the State Department, among May and September 2017, Gladkikh, a pc programmer hired with the aid of using a main studies business enterprise of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and co-conspirators hacked the structures of a refinery positioned out of doors the US and set up malware designed to save you the refinery’s protection structures from functioning (i.e., with the aid of using inflicting the economic manipulate gadget to function in an hazardous way even as retaining the advent that it became running normally).
Between February and July 2018, the conspirators researched comparable refineries withinside the United States, which have been owned with the aid of using a U.S. company, and unsuccessfully tried to hack the U.S. company’s pc structures, it stated.
Additionally, Gladkikh is likewise desired with the aid of using the FBI for conspiracy to purpose harm to an unnamed electricity facility; try and purpose harm to an electricity facility; and conspiracy to get admission to included computers.
From as a minimum August of 2014, and persevering with via July of 2018, Gladkikh is claimed to have conspired with, amongst others, the State Research Center of the Russian Federation and recognised and unknown co-conspirators, to dedicate pc intrusions focused on electricity centers and refineries withinside the United States and overseas, and to purpose harm to the ones centers.