The local security service previously told Russian media that the suspect — whose name was not disclosed at the time — used a messenger app to join the Ukrainian cyber forces, which are "overseen by Ukrainian intelligence," in order to carry out cyberattacks. Another Russian citizen, a university student detained on the same day as Smirnov, was sentenced to six years in a penal colony for allegedly aiding hacker groups linked to Ukrainian security services. A Russian court has sentenced a man to 16 years in a high-security penal colony for launching cyberattacks that disrupted critical infrastructure, authorities said on Wednesday. According to their investigation, Smirnov used malware to attack Russian information systems in 2022, blocking access to websites of several local companies and damaging critical infrastructure. Prosecutors accused him of copying the medical records of Russian soldiers from his work computer and attempting to transfer them to Ukrainian authorities in April 2022. Smirnov’s case is among hundreds brought by Russian authorities in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At the time of his arrest, Russian broadcasters aired a video showing Federal Security Service (FSB) officers tackling a man to the ground, handcuffing him and forcing him into a car. In a separate case in May, a Russian court sentenced a hospital IT specialist from Bratsk to 14 years in prison.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:40:13 +0000