The United States announced on Thursday the seizure of 41 Internet domains allegedly used by Russian intelligence agents to try to gain access to computers and email accounts of the Pentagon, the State Department and other US government officials, UNN reports citing AFP.
Details
"The Russian government launched this scheme to steal Americans' sensitive information by using seemingly legitimate email accounts to trick victims into disclosing credentials," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the domains were used as part of a "long and sophisticated targeted phishing campaign" by the so-called Callisto Group, an operational unit within Center 18 of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
Among the victims were US companies, former members of the US intelligence community, former and current employees of the Department of Defense and the State Department, and employees of the Department of Energy.
The Justice Department said that Microsoft simultaneously filed a civil lawsuit to seize 66 Internet domains allegedly used by the Callisto Group, which the American software giant calls Star Blizzard.
Microsoft said that between January 2023 and August 2024, Star Blizzard attacked more than 30 civil society organizations - journalists, think tanks, and NGOs - with phishing campaigns.
Addendum
In December, US authorities indicted two alleged members of the Callisto Group for hacking computer networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, other NATO countries, and Ukraine.
Neither of them is in custody, and both are believed to be in Russia.