Latvia accuses Russia of cyber attacks
Latvia’s Constitution Protection Bureau reported that Russian military intelligence service GRU has attempted to gain access to the Latvian government's information using phishing attacks against their computer networks.
"The cyber attacks in Latvia were carried out by the GRU for the espionage purposes. The most frequent attacks were directed against state institutions, including the defense and foreign affairs sectors," said the statement.
Less commonly, the GRU attacks were aimed at the media and Latvian private companies.
The ministry noted that most often Russian hackers infected the system with spyware using phishing. In 2016, a massive cyber attack with the virus disguised as Christmas greetings was launched against Latvian officials.
At the same time, the bureau stressed that they did not observe politically motivated cyber attacks of the Russian military intelligence, which could affect the results of 13th Saeima elections in Latvia.
Previously, on October 4, the Netherlands reported about four GRU staff members deported from the country in April. According to the Dutch authorities, hackers Evgenii Serebriakov and Aleksei Morenets, as well as operatives Oleg Sotnikov and Alexey Minin planned to attack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. Evgenii Serebriakov has allegedly participated in the cyber attack against the police and prosecutors in Malaysia.
Later, the U.S. Justice Department filed charges against seven GRU officers: four persons from the Netherlands report and three more persons who took part in interfering in the U.S. presidential elections.