October 4th, 2018. Announced by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK and its allies exposed a ransomware campaign by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, of indiscriminate and reckless cyber attacks targeting political institutions, businesses, media and sport.
Here is what the NCSC said: "The NCSC has identified that a number of cyber actors widely known to have been conducting cyber attacks around the world are, in fact, the GRU. These attacks have been conducted in flagrant violation of international law, have affected citizens in a large number of countries, including Russia, and have cost national economies millions of pounds.
"Cyber attacks orchestrated by the GRU have attempted to undermine international sporting institution WADA, disrupt transport systems in Ukraine, destabilise democracies and target businesses.
This campaign by the GRU shows that it is working in secret to undermine international law and international institutions."
The UK Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said:
“These cyber attacks serve no legitimate national security interest, instead impacting the ability of people around the world to go about their daily lives free from interference, and even their ability to enjoy sport.
“The GRU’s actions are reckless and indiscriminate: they try to undermine and interfere in elections in other countries; they are even prepared to damage Russian companies and Russian citizens. This pattern of behaviour demonstrates their desire to operate without regard to international law or established norms and to do so with a feeling of impunity and without consequences.
“Our message is clear: together with our allies, we will expose and respond to the GRU’s attempts to undermine international stability.”
Today, the UK and its allies are once again united in demonstrating that the international community will stand up against irresponsible cyber attacks by other Governments and that we will work together to respond to them. The British Government will continue to do whatever is necessary to keep our people safe.
As the Prime Minister said in Parliament on 5 September 2018, the UK will work with our allies to shine a light on the activities of the GRU and expose their methods.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre assess that the GRU is almost certainly the cyber actors listed below. Given the high confidence assessment and the broader context, the UK government has made the judgement that the Russian Government – the Kremlin – was responsible."
Here is a full list of attributions that the British National Cyber Security Centre has compiled about the GRU.
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