Britain and its allies defeat Snake, Russia's main digital hacking tool

The UK's National Cyber ​​Security Centre, part of GCHQ (pictured), has worked with the FBI and security forces in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. to dismantle the malicious Snake implant. Photo: Barry Batchelor/PA

The UK and its allies have destroyed Moscow's «master tool of espionage», as announced.

Together with the FBI, Britain's National Cyber ​​Security Service Security Center (NCSC), part of GCHQ, together with the security forces of New Zealand, Australia and Canada, he told how they dismantled the malicious Snake implant.

In a joint bulletin released Tuesday, they said they hope to help organizations understand how Snake works and provide mitigation recommendations to protect against the threat.

A senior FBI official told reporters: Their [Russia's] chief a spying tool.

Our ability to disable it and then publicly enable network defenders to protect their networks from it, we believe, makes it untenable for the Federal Security Service. (FSB) for recovery after this operation.

Malware and its variants have been a major component of Russian espionage operations conducted by Center 16 of the Russian FSB for almost two decades.

International spy agencies working to crack the code have exposed Snake infrastructure in more than 50 countries, including the US and Russia itself.

Sensitive data from targets

The US Agency for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security said the implant was used to collect sensitive information from specific targets, such as government networks, think tanks, and journalists.

Paul Chichester , Director of Operations for NCSC, said: «This fact sheet reveals the most sophisticated spy tool used by Russian cyber actors to help uncover tactics and methods used against specific targets around the world.»

«We urge We encourage organizations to read the Snake malware technical information and take remedial action to help detect and protect against this complex threat.»