The cyber attack attempts coincided with Putin's statements about his readiness to use nuclear weapons and the visit of UN experts to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
A team of Russian hackers known as Cold River (“Cold River”) tried to attack three nuclear research laboratories in the United States.
It is reported by Reuters.
According to the agency, attempts to carry out a cyber attack took place in August-September 2022, when the president of the aggressor state, Vladimir Putin, spoke of his readiness to use nuclear weapons to “defend his territory.”
Cold River targeted Brookhaven (BNL), Argonne (ANL), and Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) National Laboratories. The hackers set up fake login pages for each institution and sent emails to nuclear scientists trying to get them to reveal their passwords.
Reuters was unable to find out why these particular labs were targeted or whether the intrusion attempts were successful.
According to cybersecurity researchers and Western government officials, Cold River stepped up its hacking campaign against Kyiv's allies after invading Ukraine.
The cyberattack on the US lab also coincided with a visit by UN experts to Russian-controlled Ukraine to inspect Europe's largest nuclear power plant in occupied Energodar and assess the risk of radioactive contamination amid intense bombardment near it.
Recall that the US Treasury Department repelled cyber attacks by a pro-Russian hacker group last fall, preventing failures.
