Weather
The Pine Tree, News for Calaveras County and Beyond Weather
Amador Angels Camp Arnold Bear Valley Copperopolis Murphys San Andreas Valley Springs Moke Hill/West Point Tuolumne
News
Business Directory
Weather & Roads
Sports
Real Estate
Search
Weekly & Grocery Ads
Entertainment
Life & Style
Government
Law Enforcement
Business
Wine News
Health & Fitness
Home & Garden
Food & Dining
Religion & Faith
Frogtown USA
Calendar
Polls
Columns
Free Classifieds
Letters to the Editor
Obituaries
About Us

Coming Soon...
Friday, Mar 22
03:30 PM Bear Valley Adventure Company's Trailblazers Youth Ski Program
Saturday, Mar 23
All Day Saturday, March 23: Green Sand Molding & Foundry Practice Workshop at Knight Foundry
All Day Calaveras Gem & Mineral Society's Gem & Jewelry Show is March 23 & 24
10:00 AM Calaveras Gem and Mineral Show 2024
10:00 AM Calaveras Gem & Mineral Show 3/23 & 3/24
Sunday, Mar 24
All Day Calaveras Gem & Mineral Society's Gem & Jewelry Show is March 23 & 24
All Day Our Sunday Edition with Local Features, Local Specials & More Every Sunday All Day Long!
Until 05:00 AM Calaveras Gem and Mineral Show 2024
Until 05:00 PM Calaveras Gem & Mineral Show 3/23 & 3/24
Tuesday, Mar 26
01:30 PM Calaveras Community Blood Drive, Tuesday March 26
Friday, Mar 29
03:30 PM Bear Valley Adventure Company's Trailblazers Youth Ski Program
Sunday, Mar 31
All Day Our Sunday Edition with Local Features, Local Specials & More Every Sunday All Day Long!
03:30 PM Bear Valley Adventure Company's Trailblazers Youth Ski Program

Log In
Username

Password

Remember Me



Posted by: thepinetree on 07/13/2018 09:48 AM Updated by: thepinetree on 07/13/2018 09:58 AM
Expires: 01/01/2023 12:00 AM
:

Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to the 2016 Election

Washington, DC...The Department of Justice today announced that a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special Counsel’s Office. The indictment charges twelve Russian nationals for committing federal crimes that were intended to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. All twelve defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military. These GRU officers, in their official capacities, engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and released that information on the internet under the names "DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0" and through another entity.





“The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.”

According to the allegations in the indictment, Viktor Borisovich Netyksho, Boris Alekseyevich Antonov, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin, Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov, Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev, Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev, Nikolay Yuryevich Kozachek, Pavel Vyacheslavovich Yershov, Artem Andreyevich Malyshev, Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk, Aleksey Aleksandrovich Potemkin, and Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev were officials in Unit 26165 and Unit 74455 of the Russian government’s Main Intelligence Directorate.

In 2016, officials in Unit 26165 began spearphishing volunteers and employees of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, including the campaign’s chairman. Through that process, officials in this unit were able to steal the usernames and passwords for numerous individuals and use those credentials to steal email content and hack into other computers. They also were able to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through these spearphishing techniques to steal emails and documents, covertly monitor the computer activity of dozens of employees, and implant hundreds of files of malicious computer code to steal passwords and maintain access to these networks.

The officials in Unit 26165 coordinated with officials in Unit 74455 to plan the release of the stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 presidential election. Defendants registered the domain DCLeaks.com and later staged the release of thousands of stolen emails and documents through that website. On the website, defendants claimed to be “American hacktivists” and used Facebook accounts with fictitious names and Twitter accounts to promote the website. After public accusations that the Russian government was behind the hacking of DNC and DCCC computers, defendants created the fictitious persona Guccifer 2.0. On the evening of June 15, 2016 between 4:19PM and 4:56PM, defendants used their Moscow-based server to search for a series of English words and phrases that later appeared in Guccifer 2.0’s first blog post falsely claiming to be a lone Romanian hacker responsible for the hacks in the hopes of undermining the allegations of Russian involvement.

Members of Unit 74455 also conspired to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections to steal voter data stored on those computers.

To avoid detection, defendants used false identities while using a network of computers located around the world, including the United States, paid for with cryptocurrency through mining bitcoin and other means intended to obscure the origin of the funds. This funding structure supported their efforts to buy key accounts, servers, and domains. For example, the same bitcoin mining operation that funded the registration payment for DCLeaks.com also funded the servers and domains used in the spearphishing campaign.

The indictment includes 11 criminal counts:

Count One alleges a criminal conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States through cyber operations by the GRU that involved the staged release of stolen documents for the purpose of interfering with the 2016 president election;
Counts Two through Nine charge aggravated identity theft for using identification belonging to eight victims to further their computer fraud scheme;
Count Ten alleges a conspiracy to launder money in which the defendants laundered the equivalent of more than $95,000 by transferring the money that they used to purchase servers and to fund other costs related to their hacking activities through cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin; and
Count Eleven charges conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by attempting to hack into the computers of state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and US companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of elections.

There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity or knew they were communicating with Russian intelligence officers. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the vote count or changed the outcome of the 2016 election.

Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. At trial, prosecutors must introduce credible evidence that is sufficient to prove each defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, to the unanimous satisfaction of a jury of twelve citizens.

This case was investigated with the help of the FBI’s cyber teams in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and San Francisco and the National Security Division. The Special Counsel's investigation is ongoing. There will be no comments from the Special Counsel at this time.



Comments - Make a comment
The comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for its content. We value free speech but remember this is a public forum and we hope that people would use common sense and decency. If you see an offensive comment please email us at news@thepinetree.net

What's Related
These might interest you as well
Photo Albums

Local News

phpws Business Directory

Web Pages

Calendar


Mark Twain Medical Center
Meadowmont Pharmacy
Angels & San Andreas Memorial Chapels
Bear Valley Real Estate
Gerard Insurance
Bank of Stockton
Fox Security
Bistro Espresso
Chatom Winery
Middleton's Furniture
Bear Valley Mountain Resort
Cave, Mine & Zip Lines
High Country Spa & Stove
Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway
Sierra Logging Museum Calaveras Mentoriing
Jenny's Kitchen

Copyright © The Pine Tree 2005-2023