Russian is accused of 'wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages as fits of spite', hacking broad targets like Olympics organisers, the French election and US hospitals and businesses.
"No country has weaponised its cyber capabilities as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages as fits of spite," said US Assistant Attorney-General John Demers, the Justice Department's top national security official.
None of the six defendants is currently in custody, but the Justice Department in recent years has charged foreign hackers in absentia with the goal of creating a message of deterrence.At the same time, British officials said the GRU hackers also conducted "cyber reconnaissance" operations against organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Games,
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "The GRU's actions against the Olympic and Paralympic Games are cynical and reckless. We condemn them in the strongest possible terms." Britain and the United States said the hackers were involved in other attacks, such as the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in South Korea, which compromised hundreds of computers, took down internet access and disrupted broadcast feeds.
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