Category Archives: Republic of Georgia

In rare move, State Department calls out Russia for attacks on Georgia last year

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In a rare public announcement, the State Department is formally blaming Russian intelligence for a cyber incident that disrupted thousands of websites in Georgia last year. The incident, carried out by the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) last October, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, disrupted and defaced thousands of Georgian government websites and the broadcast of two television stations. “This action contradicts Russia’s attempts to claim it is a responsible actor in cyberspace and demonstrates a continuing pattern of reckless Russian GRU cyber operations against a number of countries,” Pompeo said in a statement Thursday. “These operations aim to sow division, create insecurity, and undermine democratic institutions.” Thursday’s announcement was the first time the U.S. government connected the GRU to the hacking group known as Sandworm. The U.S. government has previously said Sandworm was responsible for the NotPetya worm and Olympic Destroyer attacks. The rare reprimand […]

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Cyberattacks hit websites of Georgia’s president, broadcasters and more

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The websites of government agencies, media outlets and nongovernmental organizations in the Eastern European country of Georgia were hit by cyberattacks on Monday, evoking memories of a disruptive digital assault there over a decade ago. Roughly 2,000 websites were affected, according to the Agence France-Presse and the BBC, including those of the Georgian president and Georgian courts. It is unclear who is behind the cyberattacks. Georgia’s interior ministry has launched an investigation. The hackers took over the website of President Salome Zourabichvili and posted an image of Georgia’s exiled ex-president, Mikheil Saakashvili, with the words, “I’ll be back,” a spokesperson for the Georgian Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed to CyberScoop. Zourabichvili recently returned from a visit to Japan that included a meeting with a telecom firm that focused on cybersecurity. “Protecting Georgia through #cybersecurity is a priority in the 21st century and we look forward to their visit to Georgia to assess the situation,” […]

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U.S. extradites Russian accused in hack of JPMorgan Chase

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The U.S. has announced the extradition of accused Russian hacker Andrei Tyurin from the nation of Georgia for his alleged role in a hacking campaign against American financial institutions, according to the Department of Justice. “Tyurin’s alleged hacking activities were so prolific, they lay claim to the largest theft of U.S. customer data from a single financial institution in history, accounting for a staggering 80 million-plus victims,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Friday. “As Americans increasingly turn to online banking, theft of online personal information can cause devastating effects on their financial wellbeing, sometimes taking years to recover.” The indictment against Tyurin does not mention the hacking targets by name, but details — the number of victims, the time of the breach, the co-conspirators, the location of the victim, etc — line up with those related to the 2014 hack of JPMorgan Chase, which led to the theft of names […]

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