FBI says it has sabotaged hacking tool created by elite Russian spies

WASHINGTON – The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has sabotaged a suite of malicious software used by elite Russian spies, the United States authorities said on Tuesday, providing a glimpse of the digital tug-of-war between the two cyber superpowers.

Senior law enforcement officials said FBI technical experts had identified and disabled malware wielded by Russia’s FSB security service against an undisclosed number of American computers, a move they hoped would deal a death blow to one of Russia’s leading cyber-spying programmes.

“We assess this as being their premier espionage tool,” one of the US officials told journalists ahead of the press statement. He said Washington hoped the operation would “eradicate it from the virtual battlefield”.

The official said the FSB spies behind the malware, known as Snake, are part of a notorious hacking group tracked by the private sector and known as “Turla”.

The group has been active for two decades against a variety of Nato-aligned targets, US government agencies and technology companies, a senior FBI official said.

Russian diplomats did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Moscow routinely denies

carrying out cyber-espionage operations.

US officials spoke to journalists on Tuesday ahead of the press statement on condition that they not be named. Similar announcements, revealing the FSB cyber-disruption effort, were made by security agencies in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Turla is widely considered one of the most sophisticated hacking teams studied by the security research community.

“They have persisted in the shadows by focusing on stealth and operational security,” said Mr John Hultquist, vice-president of threat analysis at US cyber-security company Mandiant. “They are one of the hardest targets we have.” REUTERS