Russia’s Embassy in the United States pointed the finger back at the U.S. Friday after its cybersecurity agencies blamed Kremlin-backed hackers for a massive hacking campaign on Western private and government entities.
U.S. and U.K. national security agencies on Thursday said a cyber-unit within Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency has conducted “brute force” attacks on predominantly U.S. and European servers between 2019-2021. Government and military departments, media organizations, energy companies, higher education institutions and others were said to be targeted.
“These efforts are almost certainly still ongoing,” the joint statement by the National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said.
Russia’s Embassy in Washington said it “strictly denies” Russian government involvement in the cyberattacks.
“We emphasize that fighting against cybercrime is an inherent priority for Russia and an integral part of its state policy to combat all forms of crime,” it said in a Facebook post.
Citing President Vladimir Putin’s past proposal for mutual non-interference in the cyber realm, the Russian Embassy urged “joint efforts to combat cybercrime.”
“Besides, it's high time to put things in order on the American soil, from where constant attacks on critical infrastructure in Russia emerge,” the Embassy said without providing examples.
Its finger-pointing comes two weeks after Putin held “positive” talks with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva, in which Biden outlined 16 areas of critical infrastructure that “should be off limits” to Russian cyberattacks.
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