Law, Power, and Justice

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/11/western-spies-putin-hacking-tool-snake/

The Snake malicious software (malware) network, used by Russia’s FSB spy agency, was knocked offline by the West’s Five Eyes espionage alliance on Tuesday in a multinational swoop codenamed Operation Medusa.

Their takedown has disabled a vital Kremlin tool for interfering in Western elections, disrupting businesses and gathering intelligence on Moscow’s enemies – ending a two-decade-long cyber spying campaign that indiscriminately targeted businesses and Western governments alike.

The FSB used it to steal sensitive diplomatic documents from one Nato country, while also targeting financial services, critical manufacturers and media organisations across the free world. The personal computer of an unnamed journalist at a US media company was also infected.

John Hultquist, head of Google-owned Mandiant Intelligence Analysis, adds that at one point the FSB used Snake to eavesdrop on an Iranian hacking campaign, quietly helping themselves to information being stolen from a Western organisation even as the Iranians congratulated themselves on pulling off an intelligence coup.