Ukrainian Woman Charged in Russian Cyberattacks on US Infrastructure

A Ukrainian woman extradited to the United States earlier this year faces federal charges in Los Angeles for her alleged role in Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure, including U.S. water systems and a Southern California meat processing facility. Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova, 33, also known by aliases including Vika, Tory and SovaSonya, was arraigned Tuesday on two separate indictments accusing her of conspiracy to damage protected computers, tampering with public water systems, aggravated identity theft and related offenses. She pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Prosecutors allege Dubranova supported two pro-Russian hacktivist groups, CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn, known as CARR, and NoName05716, or NoName, which conducted hundreds of attacks worldwide since early 2022 to advance Moscow's geopolitical interests. CARR, founded and funded by Russia's military intelligence unit, the GRU, evolved from distributed denial-of-service attacks to intrusions into industrial control systems. The group, which maintained a Telegram channel with over 75,000 followers, claimed responsibility for damaging U.S. public drinking water systems in multiple states,...