Mga Opisyal ng Russian Intelligence Inihabla – Sinasabing Gumamit ng Bitcoin sa mga Cyber Crime

The United States has recently naghabla a group of 6 members of the Russian military and charged them with ‘Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the United States’.  The offenses listed in the indictment are described as a conspiracy to use hacking and malware to commit offenses against the United States for the strategic benefit of Russia.  Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were tools used by the defendants to assist with cloaking their identities and facilitating the development of their infrastructure.

Pagbanggit ng mga Pangalan

In the indictment, prosecutors have specifically named 6 individuals.

• Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko
• Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov
• Pavel Valeryevich Frolov
• Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev
• Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko
• Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin

Each of these individuals were Russian military intelligence officers assigned to Military Unit 74455.

Mga Kaso

Those involved, referred to as the ‘Conspirators’ by prosecutors, took action in a variety of manners.  Regardless of whether this was deploying malicious malware, spearphishing for sensitive data, or some other means, each action was taken with the goal of helping the Russian government.

Prosecutors state that those charged, “…sinasadyang at sinadyang nagkasabwatan sa isa’t isa at sa mga taong kilala at hindi kilala ng grand jury (sama-samang tinatawag na ‘Conspirators’) upang mag-deploy ng mapanirang malware at magsagawa ng iba pang mapang-abala na aksyon, para sa estratehikong pakinabang ng Russia, sa pamamagitan ng hindi awtorisadong pag-access sa mga computer ng biktima.”

Mga Biktima

While those named are being charged with ‘conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States’, their past efforts branch out much further.

In addition to thousands being affected within the United States, prosecutors provide the following examples (among many more) of the various targets of the Russian hackers.  In each case, the Russian hackers participated in illegal activity, in an attempt to sway world events in a favorable direction for the Russian government.

Ukraine

• Inatake ang mga kumpanya na sumusuporta sa grid ng elektrisidad ng Ukraine, Ministry of Finance, at State Treasury

France

• Inhack ang mga kampanya politikal sa parehong lokal at pambansang antas

2018 Winter Olympics

• Gumamit ng spearphishing upang kunin ang sensitibong datos mula sa iba’t ibang atleta at bansa
• Nag-deploy ng mapanirang malware sa mga sistema ng computer

NotPetya

• Nag-deploy ng isang malware attack na tinawag na ‘NotPetya’, na responsable sa pagkapinsala ng mga sistema sa pandaigdigang saklaw (FedEx , Heritage Valley Health System, atbp.)

It is widely believed that State-sanctioned hacking groups like Military Unit 7445, are still working hard to manipulate foreign governments.  For now, prosecutors will rely on the aforementioned examples, among others, as evidence of this.

Ang Papel ng Bitcoin

Prosecutors allege that the Russian hackers utilized Bitcoin as a means to obscure various purchases associated with their work.

“Upang higit pang takpan ang kanilang mga pagkakakilanlan at gawain at upang mapadali ang pagbili at pagrenta ng imprastruktura (tulad ng mga server at domain name) na ginagamit sa kanilang hacking activity, binayaran ng mga Conspirators ang imprastruktura gamit ang mga cryptocurrency, tulad ng bitcoin,”

While the hackers would have undoubtedly found a way to complete these actions without cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrencies surely made their efforts easier.  Unfortunately, the inherent characteristics of Bitcoin and some cryptocurrencies attract both good and bad users.

Pagpapalakas ng Salaysay

While Bitcoin has endured situations much worse than this Russian conspiracy, instances like this continue to hamper mainstream adoption of the digital asset.  For those well-versed in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, they know that there are many legitimate use cases for Bitcoin – this, however, represents a small subset of the general population.