The FBI, working with other countries, has disrupted a Russian hacking operation that penetrated more than 1,000 home and small business Internet routers in the United States and around the world, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Russian intelligence, working with cybercriminals, created a botnet, or network of private computers infected with malware, to spy on military and security agencies and private companies in countries such as the United States.
Using a court order, the FBI secretly copied and deleted stolen data and malware from hacked routers. That stopped Russia from being able to use the routers without affecting their operation, officials said.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray shared details of the operation at an annual security conference in Munich.
The disruption is part of a broader effort to thwart Russia’s cyber campaigns against the United States and its allies, including Ukraine. Details of the operation come a day after the Biden administration said it had told Congress and its European allies that Russia was seeking to build a space-based nuclear weapon to target the US satellite network.
For weeks, the White House and its supporters in Congress have been trying to convince House Republicans to continue funding Ukraine’s military operations in its fight against Russia because doing so is critical to American national security.
Speaking in Munich, Mr Wray said Russia continues to target critical infrastructure, such as submarine cables and industrial control systems, around the world.
“For example, since its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we have seen Russia conduct reconnaissance in the US energy sector,” Mr Wray said. “And this is a particularly worrying trend because we know that once access is restored, a hacker can switch from intelligence gathering to attack quickly and without warning.”
Mr Wray warned that China’s cyber warfare capabilities also continued to improve.
“The cyber threat posed by the Chinese government is enormous,” Mr Wray said. “China’s hacking program is larger than that of all other major countries combined.”
Last month, the FBI announced it had disrupted a similar campaign from China that targeted critical infrastructure, often infiltrating small businesses, contractors or local government networks. In recent months, the FBI and Justice Department have warned of an increase in malicious activity against the United States from China, Iran and Russia.
