The U.S. Division of State is providing a reward of as much as $10 million for data on three Russian Federal Safety Service (FSB) officers concerned in cyberattacks focusing on U.S. vital infrastructure organizations on behalf of the Russian authorities.
The three people, Marat Valeryevich Tyukov, Mikhail Mikhailovich Gavrilov, and Pavel Aleksandrovich Akulov, are a part of the FSB’s Heart 16 or Army Unit 71330, which is tracked as Berserk Bear, Blue Kraken, Crouching Yeti, Dragonfly, and Koala Workforce.
In March 2022, the three FBS officers had been additionally charged for his or her involvement in a marketing campaign that befell between 2012 and 2017, focusing on U.S. authorities companies, together with the Nuclear Regulatory Fee, in addition to power corporations like Wolf Creek Nuclear Working Company, which operates a nuclear energy plant in Burlington, Kansas.
“For data on three Russian FSB officers who performed malicious cyber actions in opposition to U.S. vital infrastructure on behalf of the Russian authorities. These officers additionally focused greater than 500 overseas power corporations in 135 different international locations,” the State Division tweeted on Tuesday.
“If in case you have data on their actions, contact Rewards for Justice through the Tor-based tips-reporting channel [..] You would be eligible for a reward and relocation.”
Extra not too long ago, because the FBI warned in August, they exploited the CVE-2018-0171 vulnerability in end-of-life Cisco networking gadgets over the previous 12 months to breach corporations throughout U.S. vital infrastructure sectors by remotely executing arbitrary code on unpatched gadgets.
Cisco, which first detected CVE-2018-0171 assaults virtually 4 years in the past, in November 2021, up to date its advisory and urged community admins and safety groups to patch their gadgets in opposition to assaults as quickly as attainable.
The networking large’s cybersecurity division, Cisco Talos, reported that the Russian state-sponsored hacking group has been aggressively exploiting this safety vulnerability to breach unpatched gadgets belonging to telecommunications, greater training, and manufacturing organizations throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The identical Russian menace group is thought for attacking U.S. state, native, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) authorities organizations and aviation entities during the last decade.
In June, the U.S. State Division additionally introduced a reward of as much as $10 million for data on state hackers tied to the RedLine infostealer malware operation and its suspected creator, Russian nationwide Maxim Alexandrovich Rudometov.
46% of environments had passwords cracked, practically doubling from 25% final 12 months.
Get the Picus Blue Report 2025 now for a complete take a look at extra findings on prevention, detection, and information exfiltration developments.
