Russian Embassy to US 'Strictly Denies' Involvement of Moscow in Cyberattacks on US, Abroad

Earlier in the week, intelligence agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom accused Russia's GRU of a global "brute force" cyberattack aimed to "compromise enterprise and cloud environments."

The Russian Embassy to the United States on Thursday rejected claims that Russian government agencies are involved in attacks on government and private facilities in America and other countries.

"We strictly deny the involvement of Russian government agencies in attacks 'on government and private facilities in the United States and abroad.' We emphasize that fighting against cybercrime is an inherent priority for Russia and an integral part of its state policy to combat all forms of crime. A wide range of law enforcement instruments is used for its implementation," the Russian embassy wrote on its Facebook page on late Thursday.

The embassy expressed hope that "the American side will abandon the practice of unfounded accusations and focus on professional work with Russian experts to strengthen international information security, and in this context, on joint efforts to combat cybercrime".

"It's high time to put things in order on the American soil, from where constant attacks on critical infrastructure in Russia emerge", the statement noted.

The embassy also emphasized that fighting cybercrime remains "an inherent priority" for Moscow and outlined that the best way to combat cyber threats is "to ensure active interaction between relevant state agencies of the two countries."

The Russian embassy's comments followed a joint report by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) that was published earlier in the week.

🚨 The Russian GRU has been conducting a global brute force campaign to compromise enterprise and cloud environments. We encourage users & administrators to read our joint advisory with @NSACyber, @FBI and @NCSC UK: https://t.co/dxEneOQ5y6 pic.twitter.com/XT3K10uH7k

— Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (@CISAgov) July 1, 2021

​In the report, the intelligence agencies claim that Russia's GRU has been carrying out a "global brute force campaign", allegedly targeting "enterprise and cloud environments". It was also asserted that the cyberattacks started "from mid-2019" and are "likely ongoing". 

Despite elaborating on techniques and methods allegedly used by the GRU to target multiple entities around the world, the advisory issued by the Western intelligence agencies has not proffered any evidence of Russian involvement in the malicious activities.