US charges 7 Russian intel agents with hacking

WASHINGTON – Seven Russian intelligence officers were charged with hacking computers associated with 250 athletes and anti-doping sports organizations in the U.S. and around the world, Justice Department officials announced Thursday.

The criminal activity described in the 41-page indictment came in retaliation for people and organizations who revealed Russia’s doping program for its athletes – revelations that led to stripping dozens of Olympic medals from Russian athletes and banning its athletes from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The hacking that began in December 2014 and continued until at least May 2018 intruded into computers of U.S. citizens and corporations, and international firms and their workers around the world, officials said.

“In other words, Russia cheated,” said Scott Brady, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania. “They cheated, they got caught, they were banned from the Olympics, they were mad and they retaliated. In retaliating, they broke the law, so they are criminals.”

The conspiracy aimed to publicize stolen information as part of an influence and disinformation campaign designed to undermine and retaliate against anti-doping organizations and officials who had publicly exposed a Russian state-sponsored athlete doping program, officials said. Another goal was to damage the reputations of athletes around the world by falsely claiming they were using performanceenhancing drugs, officials said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations as “propaganda.”

The charges were related to an intelligence operation against Russian agents in The Hague attempting to breach the cybersecurity of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which Dutch and United Kingdom officials announced Thursday.