US busts Russian cyber operation in dozens of countries

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says it has disrupted a long-running Russian cyberespionage campaign that stole sensitive information from computer networks in dozens of countries. Prosecutors linked the spying operation to a unit of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, and accused the hackers of stealing documents from hundreds of computer systems belonging to governments of NATO members, an unidentified journalist for a U.S. news organization who reported on Russia, and other select targets of interest to the Kremlin. The specific targets were not named in court papers, but U.S. officials described the espionage campaign as “consequential.”