All over the world there are reports of cybercrime allegedly having ties with Russia and the Russian hackers who in most cases are not guilty of anything. However, the Russian hackers are still “under the gun” in connection with the scandal over Russia’s attempts to influence the outcome of the US presidential election in favor of Donald trump.
The international community expresses the concern about the cyber war waged by Russia, because of the risk for the Internet network and damages caused by cyber attacks.
When computers or electronic networks of the country are exposed to attacks or hacking, the local population may not be able to meet their needs in drinking water, medical care, electricity. Such threats are currently able to disrupt global stability.
During the elections in the United States, held last year, for the first time, began to sound the message about the manipulations in relation to electronic data and of votes made in favor of trump, while American intelligence in its reports blamed Russia.
While the US were investigating the incident, the day before the presidential elections of the Russian intelligence intervened in the electoral campaign of the French candidate, Emmanuel Macron.
In addition, Russian hackers have contributed to the beginning of the crisis in the Persian Gulf. As reported by the American CNN in early July, a group of Russian hackers hacked into the platform of the Qatari news Agency, attributing to the Emir of Qatar to TA’mim bin Hamad al-Thani false statements that caused the crisis, and on 5 June began the blockade of the country. In turn, the government in Doha said that the hackers carried out their operation with sites in the UAE and its national identity.
Operation hacking
For the execution of cyber operations to meet the particular division of Russian intelligence, especially the attacks against the National Committee of the Democratic party during the presidential elections in the United States last year. As identified by American intelligence, it also performs a number of other political objectives.
No less successful was the hacking operation to obtain secret information regarding accounts responsible for campaign Rules — the information was published on the Internet in the last day of the second round of elections in France.
In an interview with Reuters a member of the U.S. Congress, as well as two other knowledgeable source on condition of anonymity, said that according to their confidential information, the Russian special services tried to spy on the election campaign of the President of France Emmanuel Makron this year, creating a page under a false name on Facebook.
Sources claim that around 24 similar accounts were created on Facebook, to monitor the officials responsible for campaign Rules and a number of people close to him, while he tried to win over his ultra-right rival marine Le Pen and other candidates during two rounds of presidential elections.
Despite repeated denials of Russian intervention in the French election by hacking the mailbox, posting messages, documents and social media, in may last year, U.S. intelligence told Reuters that hackers with ties to Russia, interfered in the election in France, but did not provide convincing evidence that the Kremlin is ordering break-ins of electronic mail boxes.
Facebook also confirmed that he found the accounts created to spy on citizens of France, and blocked them, saying that this has been done through specially designed mechanisms, as well as the intensive efforts of the staff to identify complex attacks.
The most dangerous criminals
Russia has the widest network of hackers working around the world. It consists of about 200 hackers, according to the company “Kaspersky Lab” for the year 2016.
The Russian authorities, according to their critics, are not going to take any measures to eliminate the threat from Russian hackers that they pose to the international financial system. An example of this is the most dangerous Russian cybercriminal Evgeniy Bogachev, who lived luxuriously in Russia, knowing that he is wanted by the Federal Bureau of investigation, the United States, and the reward for any information leading to his arrest is $ 3 million.
Earlier Evgeny Bogachev spoke of his desire to cooperate with the Russian special services in the field of electronic espionage.
As the newspaper The New York Times in 2016, the 33-year-old hacker Bogachev may provide substantial assistance to the Russian security services and provide them with important confidential information.
According to the newspaper, Bogaczewo managed to crack numerous secret Bank accounts that allows the Russian authorities to access some important documents and many sensitive electronic mailboxes.
As reported in the newspaper, Russia took advantage of the situation and used data and information obtained through Bogaczewo, which has become another tool in the hands of Moscow in a cyber war against the United States and Europe.
The newspaper also noted that this case reflects the scale of effort and innovation on the part of the Russian special services in the field of international information espionage.
Russia claims not to arrest Bogachev, before he committed crimes on Russian territory, which prevents his extradition to the United States, with which Russia has no agreements on extradition of criminals.
Obviously, it’s not easy to put an end to such phenomenon of Russian cybercrime, committed in the economic, political purposes or purposes of ordinary vandalism. However, the strengthening and development of advanced upgraded system mechanisms of protection against hacking can become a big problem for hackers and mitigate the losses, which, apparently, amount to several billion dollars a year.
