The Russian men accused of waging a global cyber campaign to wreck havoc in Western democracies
- Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko is a Russian intelligence officer
- Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets is a bodybuilder and IT expert
- READ MORE: The shadowy Russian cyber unit behind attacks on British MPs
Together, they stand accused of a global cyber campaign aiming to wreak havoc in Western democracies.
US officials last night offered a reward of up to $10million (£7.9million) for information on Russian intelligence officer Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko and bodybuilder and IT expert Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets, part of the Star Blizzard group.
But the hackers appear to have done little to hide their identities. Last night, Korinets still had not deleted his social media or WhatsApp profiles.
Images of the 36-year-old bodybuilder grinning during weightlifting competitions also remained online.
But perhaps this isn’t surprising for a man so brazen that he confessed to hacking when questioned by a British journalist.
US officials last night offered a reward of up to $10million (£7.9million) for information on Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko (left) and Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets (right)
US officials last night offered a reward of up to $10million (£7.9million) for information on the two individuals, part of the Star Blizzard group. Pictured: Vladimir Putin at a meeting yesterday
In January this year, Reuters’s James Pearson outed Korinets as one of the hackers behind the targeting of US nuclear labs.
Mr Pearson said: ‘How did we know Korinets was involved in Cold River (another name for Star Blizzard)?
‘Partly because when we called him last year, he confirmed that he owned several email addresses which we knew were connected to the group’s phishing infrastructure.’
Korinets volunteered that he had escaped with a fine after being prosecuted for hacking at the age of 17.
Yesterday, prosecutors in America announced that the duo had been charged with ‘a campaign to hack into computer networks’ in the US, the UK, other Nato member countries and Ukraine.
But Korinets continued to answer calls from journalists, claiming he was unaware of any sanctions against him.
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