WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it carried out a court-authorized disruption of a DNS hijacking network controlled by a Russian military intelligence unit.
The network was operated by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) Military Unit 26165, the department said in a statement.
It added that the GRU used routers to facilitate hijacking operations against worldwide targets, including individuals in military, government and critical infrastructure sectors.
“GRU actors compromised routers in the US and around the world, hijacking them to conduct espionage. Given the scale of this threat, sounding the alarm wasn’t enough,” said Brett Leatherman, the assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis)
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