Security News > 2020 > February > GRU won't believe it: UK and US call out Russia for cyber-attacks on Georgia last year

"The National Cyber Security Centre assesses with the highest level of probability that on 28 October 2019 the GRU carried out large-scale, disruptive cyber-attacks," said the Foreign Office in a statement, referring to the main Russian overseas spy agency.

Russia has few qualms about letting APT28 loose against foreign countries, as its attacks against Italy a few years ago showed.

Making it clear that Georgia is one of Britain's buddies these days, the Foreign Office said: "Georgia is a strategic partner to the UK. The UK supports a range of projects in Georgia and our annual Ministerial-level UK-Georgia Strategic Dialogue provides an important framework for continuing to develop our strong relationship. The UK was particularly grateful for Georgia's firm support following the attack on Salisbury in 2018, including in efforts to strengthen the."

An American statement in the name of foreign secretary Michael Pompeo said: "This action contradicts Russia's attempts to claim it is a responsible actor in cyberspace and demonstrates a continuing pattern of reckless Russian GRU cyber operations against a number of countries. These operations aim to sow division, create insecurity, and undermine democratic institutions."

A decade ago Russia was also found to have been responsible for cyber attacks against Georgia, which appeared to have coincided with the former country's invasion of the latter.

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/20/apt28_hacked_georgia_uk_us_declaration/