US charges seven Russian intelligence officers over cyber attacks

US authorities have charged seven Russian military intelligence officers for hacking the organisation investigating the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and anti-doping agencies.

The announcement by the US Justice Department comes after the British and Dutch authorities disclosed they had thwarted an attempt by the GRU to hack the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.

Assistant attorney general for national security John Demers said the individuals indicted in the US include some of the four GRU officers named by the UK and the Netherlands.

Three defendants had already been charged in an indictment brought in July by the office of the Special Counsel relating to a conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 US presidential elections.

Mr Demers said it was part of a Russian campaign to pursue its interests through “disinformation operations aimed at muddying or altering perceptions of the truth”.

The indictment said the GRU had targeted the hacking victims because they had publicly supported a ban on Russian athletes in international sports competitions and because they had condemned Russia’s state-sponsored athlete doping programme.

Prosecutors said the Russians had also targeted a Pennsylvania-based nuclear energy company.

The indictment says the hacking was often conducted remotely. If that was not successful, the hackers would conduct “on-site” or “close access” hacking operations, with trained GRU members travelling with sophisticated equipment to target their victims through wifi networks.