{"id":17397,"date":"2018-10-04T19:25:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-04T19:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17397"},"modified":"2018-10-04T19:25:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T19:25:01","slug":"alleged-operations-by-russias-spy-agency-gru-in-recent-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17397","title":{"rendered":"Alleged operations by Russia’s spy agency GRU in recent years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a series of coordinated announcements, authorities in the US, UK, the Netherlands and Australia have accused the Russian military intelligence agency GRU of a huge array of cyberattacks around the world.<\/p>\n

The stunning revelations included details about Russian alleged attempts to target everything from the global chemical weapons watchdog to anti-doping agencies, and a probe into the downed Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.<\/p>\n

Russia rejected the allegations on Thursday, calling it a “diabolical cocktail” of someone with a “rich imagination”.<\/p>\n

Here’s an overview of what Russia is being accused of:<\/p>\n

2014: MH17 plane crash investigation<\/h2>\n

British authorities allege that a GRU operation conducted “malign activity” when it tried to collect information about the investigation into the 2014 downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17<\/a> over war-ravaged eastern Ukraine by targeting Malaysian government institutions, including the Attorney General’s office and Malaysian police.<\/p>\n

Dutch officials added that GRU agents had logged into Wi-Fi networks near a Malaysian hotel where investigators had gathered.<\/p>\n

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The reconstructed frame of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shown at the\u00a0<\/span>presentation of the final report into the crash of July 2014 [Michael Kooren\/Reuters]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Most of the 298 people killed onboard MH17 were Dutch citizens, and investigators say they have strong evidence the Buk missile that downed the plane came from Russia<\/a>, a charge Russia denies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld said: “We have been aware of the interest of Russian intelligence services in this investigation and have taken appropriate measures.”<\/p>\n

2016: US elections and Olympics<\/h2>\n

According to US investigators, agents from the GRU’s Unit 26165 broke into the Democratic National Committee’s emails<\/a>, wreaking havoc during the 2016 US presidential election.<\/p>\n

Authorities also accuse the GRU of sustained efforts to breach the computer systems of global and national anti-doping agencies and sporting governing bodies including the International Olympic Committee and football’s FIFA.<\/p>\n

Russian agents allegedly hacked into the website of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest court in world sports, during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.<\/p>\n

The court had been looking at doping cases involving Russian athletes.<\/p>\n

In September 2016, medical data of 250 athletes was released following a hack. Evidence suggests that in the same month, GRU agents also logged into Wi-Fi networks near a Lausanne, Switzerland, hotel where a World Anti-Doping Agency conference was held.<\/p>\n

One official from the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport had their laptop compromised by malware.<\/p>\n

According to a US indictment on Thursday, the GRU targeted the hacking victims because they had publicly supported a ban on Russian athletes in international sports competitions and because they had condemned Russia’s state-sponsored athlete doping programme.<\/p>\n

2017: Ukraine infrastructure<\/h2>\n

The GRU is accused of a catastrophic attack in June 2017 on Ukraine using malicious software that briefly knocked out cash machines, gas stations, pharmacies and hospitals.<\/p>\n

According to a secret White House assessment recently cited by Wired, the attack caused $10bn worth of damage worldwide.<\/p>\n

2018: Skripal poisoning, hacking attempt at OPCW<\/h2>\n

British authorities say that in March, immediately after the nerve agent attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, the GRU tried to hack into Foreign Office computer systems via a phishing attack.<\/p>\n

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Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with a nerve agent in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4 [Rex Features]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In April, four GRU operatives allegedly flew from Moscow to the Netherlands and attempted to hack<\/a> into and infect the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ Wi-Fi network in what’s known as a close access hack operation.<\/p>\n

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Four Russian citizens, who allegedly attempted to hack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague [Dutch defence ministry]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Mobile phones and a camera were found in possession of the four Russian men, who allegedly attempted to hack the OPCW in The Hague [Dutch defence ministry]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Dutch authorities showed photos including one of a gray rented Citroen with its trunk full of hacking equipment.<\/p>\n

The men were caught and expelled from the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

In May, GRU hackers allegedly sent phishing emails impersonating Swiss federal authorities to target OPCW employees directly.<\/p>\n

The chemical weapons watchdog had confirmed that Skripal was poisoned by the Soviet-produced nerve agent known as Novichok.<\/p>\n

Britain says the attack was carried out by GRU officers and almost certainly approved “at a senior level of the Russian state”.<\/p>\n

Russian reaction<\/h2>\n

Moscow on Thursday rejected the accusations, saying they were unworthy and part of a disinformation campaign designed to damage Russian interests.<\/p>\n

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told a news briefing that the accusations were the product of someone with a “rich imagination”.<\/p>\n

“It’s some kind of a diabolical perfume cocktail [of allegations],” TASS news agency quoted Zakharova as telling reporters.<\/p>\n

“The vivid imagination of our colleagues from the UK has no boundaries indeed […] it’s undignified for the country, which pretends to play one of the leading roles in the world,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a series of coordinated announcements, authorities in the US, UK, the Netherlands and Australia have accused the Russian military intelligence agency GRU of a huge array of cyberattacks around the world. The stunning revelations included details about Russian alleged attempts to target everything from the global chemical weapons watchdog to anti-doping agencies, and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}