Russia’s top hacker exposed by Ukrainian activists


A suspected Kremlin hacker linked to the infamous Fancy Bear cyber espionage group and wanted by the FBI has allegedly been given a taste of his own medicine, after a pro-Ukrainian group hacked into his personal accounts.

Ukrainian hacktivist group Kiber Sprotyv (Cyber Resistance) breached the personal accounts of Sergey Alexandrovich Morgachev, believed by the FBI to have been a Lieutenant Colonel serving in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army (GRU).

According to InformNapalm, Morgachev, 45, is the leader of the state-sponsored hacker group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear. Described by the FBI as a Ukrainian national in spite of his suspected affiliation with Russia, he is believed by the bureau to reside in Moscow, Russia.

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The gang is probably best known for hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in an attempt to influence the 2016 US presidential elections. Morgachev was among the 12 individuals indicted for interfering in the election and is wanted by the FBI.

Kiber Sprotyv exposed a trove of personal data about the suspected Fancy Bear hacker, including his home address, car plates, location of the secretive office Russian hackers from, and people associated with Morgachev.

After publishing an extensive article about Morgachev, InformNapalm said the outlet’s website suffered a “powerful” distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, peaking at one million requests per minute (RPM).

In one of the documents leaked by the pro-Ukrainian activists, Morgachev claims that from 1999 until 2022, he “managed the special software development department,” which points to him being the leader of Fancy Bear.

Mocking the Kremlin’s hacker, Kiber Sprotyv supposedly breached Morgachev’s AliExpress account and bought him merchandise with the FBI logo and adult toys, paying with the hackers’ personal credit card.

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