EU exposes multi-year Russian cyber campaign, imposes sanctions on those responsible for attacks

The European Union has exposed and condemned malicious Russian cyber activity that has targeted EU member states for many years.

Source: European Pravda, citing the press service for the European Council

Details: According to the EU, the 16th Centre of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) oversees a number of groups posing a cyber threat to European countries, including the Turla group.

It has been reported that the FSB has for many years carried out a wide range of malicious cyber activities, such as infiltrating government networks and sabotaging critical infrastructure, which have grown increasingly serious and have affected EU member states as well as international partners, including Ukraine.

These Russian attacks targeted France, Germany, Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Romania and Finland.

The FSB's 16th Centre has carried out cyber espionage against strategic French government bodies since 2010 and has been active against the French defence industry since 2025.

In Germany, the FSB targeted government bodies, while in Poland it carried out destructive sabotage operations against critical infrastructure, including power plants.

Russia has enlisted cybercriminals, self-proclaimed hacktivists and private companies linked to Russia to carry out these operations, the EU said.

In response, the EU is imposing sanctions on nine individuals and four organisations, including officers of the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff, as well as cybercriminals, self-proclaimed hacktivists and private companies that assist Russia's efforts to destabilise the EU, its member states and international partners.

On 13 July, it also emerged that France's Foreign Ministry plans to summon the Russian ambassador in Paris over the large-scale cyber campaign Russia is running against ten European countries.

Background: In April, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre warned of a growing threat from cyberattacks supported by foreign governments and capable of targeting infrastructure, businesses and private networks.

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