The Americans turned off sophisticated spyware for the Russians. The snake was found in a NATO member

The U.S. Department of Justice said they had disabled the Russians’ sophisticated spyware. Malware called “Snake” or “Uroboros” has allowed the Russian FSB special services to spy on 50 countries, including its ally, for two decades. The tool was loaded into computer systems around the world, focused on government networks, research facilities, journalists and other targets – The software not only spyed, but also disrupted network traffic, thanks to which it concealed its activities.

The US killed Russia’s spy toy

led the operation to get rid of “Snake” for many years. For this purpose, another code called “Perseus” was used, which forced the Russian tool to overwrite its own key components. Thus, it was told to shut down and the malware was used to defeat itself

As a result of a highly technologically advanced operation, the American services neutralized one of the most sophisticated tools of cyberespionage used over the last two decades to achieve Russian authoritarian goals

said US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

FSB started developing the software in 2003. Cybersecurity experts have known him for at least a decade. The US Cybersecurity and Security Agency (CISA) calls “Snake” the most advanced spy tool in the FSB’s arsenal. The tool has an extremely low detection rate, it was very difficult to identify if any computer was infected with it. Moreover, they were easy to update and modify. CISA found that, given the complexity of the software, it had surprisingly few bugs. Thanks to these features, the FSB was able to steal documents with sensitive information undetected for years and ensured such a high efficiency of the tool. Despite the success of “Perseus”, the Russian “Snake” is still a threat, according to the joint position of the authorities of Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Who were the Russians spying on? Among the victims is a NATO member state

It is known that “Snake” was in the system of at least one NATO member country, which was not mentioned by name. Thanks to this, Russian intelligence had access to important diplomatic documents. Earlier reports show that the software was found in the government systems of Germany, Belgium, Ukraine and Switzerland.

CISA and US investigators tracked down the malware and linked it to an FSB unit called Center 16, which operates out of Razan and Moscow. The Russians adapted the software to Windows, MacOS and Linux. Thanks to this, even when cybersecurity specialists detected malware, Russian hackers managed to modify the tool and still hide it. Snake, however, was such an advanced and complicated program that less trained operators made mistakes during its operation, which allowed Western investigators to infiltrate them.