UK accuses Russian military intelligence of hacking Tokyo Olympics, French elections

The GRU has in the past been accused of the Salisbury Novichok poisoning

cyber-attack-reuters

The UK and the US have accused the Russian military intelligence of a litany of malicious cyber-attacks including attempts to disrupt next year's Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Charges against six current and former Russian military officers include seeking to disrupt through computer hacking the French election and US hospitals and businesses. According to the UK and allied intelligence services, the Russian military intelligence service GRU carried out the attacks under the guise of Chinese and North Korean hackers in “false-flag” operations.  

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the GRU's actions in the "strongest possible terms," calling the unit "cynical and reckless.”

"The UK is confirming for the first time today the extent of GRU targeting of the 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea," a statement by the UK government said.

According to security authorities, the attacks started days before the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) threatened to ban Russian athletes from the Olympics and other major international sporting events.

The GRU has in the past been accused of the Salisbury Novichok poisoning, the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers during the 2016 US election campaign and carrying out cyberattacks on the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, using the malware “Olympic Destroyer”. More recent accusations against GRU include attacking Ukraine’s power grid, and a hack-and-leak operation directed at the political party of French President Emmanuel Macron in the days leading up to the 2017 election

Due to the Kremlin’s alleged hand in poisoning its opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the UK and the European Union, last week, imposed sanctions on senior Kremlin officials, including Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor intelligence agency to the Soviet KGB.

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