Man charged for treason over DDoS attacks

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has launched a treason case against a Russian citizen for conducting DDoS attacks on critical infrastructure.

The suspect, a former employee of an unnamed science-related organization, faces two decades in a Russian prison for distributed denial of services (DDoS) attacks, Tass reported.

The Moscow resident supposedly established contact with the Ukrainian special services and attempted to impact “critically important objects of the Russian Federation” after the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Like many who opposed the war, the suspect transferred personal funds and cryptocurrency to “accounts registered in Ukraine,” that were used to provide gear for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). FSB claims the man has also collected data about Russian military personnel and the movement of military equipment.

The man was arrested earlier this year with the authorities initially charging him for “illegal influence on the critical information infrastructure.” However, the FSB pushed to charge the suspect with treason, which in Russia can mean from 20 years to life imprisonment.

Pushing to change the charge to treason is particularly harsh as the Moscow resident is hardly the first one to be charged over DDoS attacks in Russia.

Last year, an IT specialist from Rostov was sentenced to three years behind bars over DDoS attacks against the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the dedicated website of Russian President Vladimir Putin.