Malaysia Airlines MH17: claims Russian hackers targeted files

Russia has been accused of a number of attempted cybercrimes, with the US Justice Department now laying charges.

Photo from the Preliminary report crash involving Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flight MH17.

The U.S. Justice Department has charged seven Russian military intelligence officers with hacking anti-doping agencies and other organisations.

An indictment announced in Washington on Thursday says Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as 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 program.

Prosecutors say the Russians also targeted a Pennsylvania-based nuclear energy company and an international organization that was investigating chemical weapons in Syria and the poisoning of a former GRU officer.

The indictment says the hacking was often conducted remotely. If that wasn’t successful, the hackers would conduct “on-site” or “close access” hacking operations with trained GRU members traveling with sophisticated equipment to target their victims through Wi-Fi networks

U.S.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the United States stands ready to help its NATO allies amid allegations that Russia’s intelligence services launched a series of cyberattacks.

After talks with NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Thursday, Mattis said: “We are ready today to provide cyber-support to our allies. That is now.” He did not say if the offered capabilities would be used in response to British and Dutch claims that Russia’s GRU attempted cyberattacks on the international chemical weapons watchdog and other targets.

Mattis backed their allegations, saying: “I’ve seen enough of the evidence to say the Dutch and the British are 100 percent accurate in who they’ve attributed this to.”

Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark also offered offensive cyber-capabilities to NATO.

Russia accused of hacking MH17, UN chemical weapons watchdog files

Earlier, Dutch security services have revealed they thwarted a Russian cyber attack and expelled four Russian agents in April over an alleged plot targeting the global chemical weapons watchdog and the investigation into the downing of MH17.

The Dutch allegations come less that 24 hours after Australia joined with the international community to condemn a “pattern of malicious cyber activity by Russian intelligence targeting political, business, media and sporting institutions worldwide.”

Among the material seized by police during the April operation was a laptop that had been used to target the investigation into the downing of MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which killed all 298 people on board, including 38 Australians.

The same computer’s history showed it had been used in Brazil, Malaysia and the city of Lausanne in Switzerland, where it was linked to the hacking of a laptop belonging to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) - an organisation that has previously exposed doping by Russian athletes.

“The Dutch government finds the involvement of these intelligence operatives extremely worrisome,” Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld told reporters at a news conference in the Netherlands yesterday.

“Normally we don’t reveal this type of counterintelligence operation.”

The head of the Dutch MIVD intelligence service, Major-General Onno Eichelsheim, told the news conference the men travelled to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on April 4 on Russian diplomatic passports and were escorted to The Hague by the Russian Embassy.

On April 11 the group, who are believed to belong to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, hired a Citroen C3 and scouted the area around the Organisation for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons in The Hague - unaware they were under Dutch surveillance.

In the boot of the car was sophisticated electronic equipment, which could have used to carry out a closed access hack and intercept the OPCW’s Wi-Fi network.

“We intercepted it and expelled the four men from the country. It was a successful operation,” Mr Bijleveld said.

At the time of the attempted cyber attack the organisation was investigating the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury, England.

But officials couldn’t confirm whether the incidents were related.

The news comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Russia’s cyber-activity had caused “significant, indiscriminate harm” to civilian infrastructure and resulted in millions of dollars in economic damage.

“This is unacceptable and the Australian government calls on all countries, including Russia, to refrain from these types of malicious activities.”

Australia’s statement came as Britain named Russia’s GRU intelligence service as the organisation behind a wide-ranging campaign of cyber-attacks against western targets since 2015.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently denied meddling in international affairs.

He told US President Donald Trump during a July summit in Helsinki that purported Russian interference in the US Presidential election was “nonsense”.

With AP