WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2023) The US Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it has disrupted a years-long cyber espionage campaign allegedly run by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) with the help of sophisticated malware Snake to access sensitive documents from computer systems in countries across the world.
Russia has repeatedly rejected hacking allegations, pointing to the lack of evidence to corroborate its alleged involvement.
"The Justice Department today announced the completion of a court-authorized operation, codenamed MEDUSA, to disrupt a global peer-to-peer network of computers compromised by sophisticated malware, called 'Snake', that the United States Government attributes to a unit within Center 16 of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB)," the department said in a statement.
The alleged unit, referred to as "Turla," has used versions of the Snake malware to infect computer systems in at least 50 countries, including NATO members, journalists, and other targets from as early as 2004, the Justice Department stated.
The members of the unit purportedly conduct their daily operations from a "known FSB facility" in Ryazan, Russia, the statement said.
Using a warrant this week from a Brooklyn federal judge, the Justice Department conducted a high-tech operation called MEDUSA with the help of a specialized tool that caused the malware on infected computers to self-destruct without affecting the host machine or its applications, the release said.
Despite this, victims should take additional steps to protect themselves from further harm, the department stated.
