Russian hacker exposed in Georgian cyber counterattack
- By Defense Systems Staff
- Oct 31, 2012
As U.S. military cyber units mull how to carry out successful counterattacks in cyberspace, an interesting case has developed a half world away where the country of Georgia has turned the tables on a Russia-based hacker.
Annoyed by persistent cyberatttacks by a hostile actor in Russia who had carried out a campaign over many months that stole confidential information from Georgian government ministries, parliament, banks and NGOs, Georgia's Computer Emergency Response Team conducted a well-planned cyber counterattack, reported NetworkWorld.
Georgia's CERT sent the hacker a file containing what the recipient thought was a file containing sensitive information but, in fact, contained a secret spying program, the story said.
When the hacker opened the file, it took photos of him using his own webcam, the story said.
The CERT team subsequently published a report that contained two photos of the hacker, the story said. It's believed that the hacker, or a team of hackers, had managed to infiltrate Georgian agencies and transform upwards of 400 computers into a Botnet that was dubbed Georbot.