Russia cyber army

Hackers are new branch of military

Along with a steady flow of new missiles, planes and tanks, Russia’s defense minister said Wednesday his nation also has built up its muscle by forming a new branch of the military: informationwarfare troops.

Sergei Shoigu’s statement — which comes amid Western allegations of Russian hacking — marked the first official acknowledgment of the existence of such forces.

Speaking to parliament, Shoigu said that the military also received a sweeping array of new weapons last year, including 41 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

He added that the wideranging military modernization will continue this year, with the air force set to receive 170 new aircraft. The army will receive 905 tanks and other armored vehicles, and the navy will receive 17 new ships.

Also this year, three regiments of Russia’s strate- gic nuclear forces will receive new intercontinental ballistic missiles, Shoigu said. Each regiment has up to 10 launchers.

Retired Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, the head of Russia’s defense affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said that the cyber troops’ task is to “protect the national defense interests and engage in information warfare,” according to the Interfax news agency.

He added that part of their mission is to fend off cyberattack from hostile nations.

Viktor Ozerov, the head of the Russian parliament’s defense and security committee, also told Interfax that the information troops will protect Russia’s data systems from enemy attacks, but not wage any hacking attacks abroad.

US intelligence agencies have accused Russia of hacking Democratic e-mails to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, a claim Moscow has denied.