DOJ charges Russian intelligence officers for high-profile cyberattacks

US officials say those charged ‘stand accused of conducting the most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group’

Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers (C) of the National Security Division has announced charges against six alleged members of Russia’s GRU. (EPA)

The Department of Justice has charged six Russian intelligence officers with seeking to disrupt the French election, as well as numerous US businesses and the Winter Olympics, according to an indictment unsealed on Monday.

Prosecutors accused the six hackers of using systems to disrupt the power supply in Ukraine and sought to knock out internet connection during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea.

They were also charged with hacking effort against French President Emanuel Macron throughout the 2017 election.

In a statement, the Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General John Demers said: “No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite.”

Those charged include Yuriy Sergeyevich Andrienko, 32; Sergey Vladimirovich Detistov, 35; Pavel Valeryevich Frolov, 28; Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev, 29; Artem Valeryevich Ochichenko, 27; and Petr Nikolayevich Pliskin, 32.

All six of the men are alleged officers in the Russian military agency known as the GRU.

The indictment does not charge the defendants in connection with interference in American elections, though the officers are part of the same military intelligence unit that prosecutors say interfered in the 2016 US presidential election by hacking Democratic email accounts.

The 50-page indictment, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, focuses instead on attacks that prosecutors said were aimed at promoting Russian's own geopolitical interests.

Those include cyberattacks that targeted the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where Russian athletes were banned because of a state-sponsored doping effort.

Announcing the charges on Monday, Mr Demers said the six men “stand accused of conducting the most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group”.

The Associated Press contributed to this report