DOJ Charges Six Russian Intelligence Officers In Worldwide Cyberhacks

NEARLY HALF A decade ago, the Russian hackers known as Sandworm hit Western Ukraine with the first-ever cyberattack to cause a blackout, an unprecedented act of cyberwar that turned off the lights for a quarter million Ukrainians. They were just getting started. From there Sandworm embarked on a years-long spree of wantonly destructive attacks: another blackout attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in 2016, the release of the NotPetya worm in 2017 that spread globally from Ukraine to cause $10 billion in damage, and a cyberattack that temporarily destroyed...

The Justice Department on Monday announced indictments of six Russian military intelligence officers in connection with major hacks worldwide, including of the Winter Olympics and elections in France as well as an attack in 2017 aimed at destabilizing Ukraine that spread rapidly and was blamed for billions of dollars in damage.

Prosecutors said the suspects were from the same Russian unit that conducted one of the Kremlin’s major operations to interfere in the 2016 American election: the theft of Democratic emails. They attacked the 2017 French presidential elections; targeted British...