The Justice Department announced an indictment against six Russia GRU officers charged with engaging in a series of hacking and malware deployment operations to attack other countries’ infrastructure, elections and other actions designed to further Russia’s interests.

The indictment specifically accuses the 6 alleged hackers of engaging in computer intrusions “intended to support Russian government efforts to undermine, retaliate against or otherwise destabilize” Ukraine, Georgia, elections in France, the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games and international efforts to hold Russia accountable for its use of the nerve agent Novichok on foreign soil.

“Several members of the same military group were previously charged for their role in Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election”, - reads the statement.

U.S. officials at virtual press conference at DOJ described the hacking campaign as among “the most destructive and costly cyber-attacks in history”, dealing with “some of the world"s most destructive malware to date”.

The group also is alleged to have engaged in a spearphishing campaign targeting the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, launching what officials described as the “Olympic Destroyer” malware attack during the opening ceremony that deleted data from thousands of computers supporting the games.