RUSSIA ACCUSED OF HACKING CONSPIRACY
West claims Moscow sent spies to hack targets, including MH17 probe in KL
WESTERN powers have accused Russia of orchestrating a string of global cyberattacks, including a bungled plot to hack the world’s chemical weapons watchdog in The Netherlands.
The United States indicted seven alleged Russian members of the GRU military intelligence agency on Thursday for targeting the Hague-based OPCW, the US Democratic Party, world sports bodies and US nuclear energy company Westinghouse.
The charges came as part of a coordinated pushback by allies Britain, The Netherlands, Canada and the US against a series of hacking attempts by Russia.
Russia scathingly accused the West of “spy mania”, with its foreign office describing the accusations as “propaganda”.
In scenes reminiscent of a Cold War spy novel, Dutch security services said on Thursday they had expelled four Russian GRU agents in April after they attempted a cyberattack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) from a car parked nearby.
The OPCW was at the time probing the nerve agent poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain, and an alleged chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma by the Moscowbacked regime in Damascus.
The Russians were tracked by Dutch and British secret services from their arrival in Amsterdam on diplomatic passports in April, and were seen hiring a Citroen car, which they parked outside the Marriott hotel next to OPCW.
When Dutch agents swooped on April 13, they found electronic equipment in the boot of the car to intercept the OPCW’s WiFi and login codes, including a hidden antenna facing the chemical weapons watchdog.
Marriott manager Vincent Pahlplatz said there was “no James Bond involved” and the Russians had been arrested without force as they emerged from a lift into the hotel lobby.
Investigations found the Russians had originally taken a taxi from GRU barracks in Moscow to the airport, for which Dutch agents found a receipt from their hotel. Some of their mobile phones were activated in Moscow near the agency’s headquarters.
A laptop belonging to one of the four was linked to Brazil, Switzerland and Malaysia — the activities in Malaysia were related to investigations into the 2014 shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine.
Dutch authorities released the Russian diplomatic passports of the men, identifying them as Oleg Sotnikov, Alexei Morenets, Alexei Minin and Yevgeny Serebryakov. They also showed photos of the men outside the hotel.
The four Russians allegedly involved in the OPCW attack were included in the list of seven men indicted by the US.
GRU stands for the Main Intelligence Directorate, one of Moscow's three spy agencies along with the FSB security service and the SVR foreign intelligence agency.