Russians Targeting the “Achilles Heel” of Critical Infrastructure

The Trump administration has accused Russia of a coordinated “multi-stage intrusion campaign” to hack into critical U.S. infrastructure networks and conduct “network reconnaissance” while attempting to delete evidence of their intrusions.  Homeland Security officials say they have helped the affected companies remove the Russian hackers from their compromised networks, but the Russians keep trying to hack into these critical systems.

In parallel, the Treasury Department announced a new series of sanctions on companies and individuals including Russian intelligence chiefs who were already sanctioned in December 2016 by the Obama administration. The sanctions also included employees of the Russian Internet Research Agency for involvement in the campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Others included Russian intelligence officers who were indicted in March 2017 for their involvement in the Yahoo breach beginning in January 2014.