Ukrainian Woman Indicted Over Cyberattacks for Two Russian State-Sponsored Hacking Groups, Justice Department Says
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in Washington on December 9 that two indictments in the Central District of California charge Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova, 33, a Ukrainian national, with conducting cyberattacks and computer intrusions for two Russian state-sponsored hacking groups, CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn (CARR) and NoName057(16) (NoName), against critical infrastructure including public drinking water systems in several U.S. states. Dubranova was extradited to the United States earlier this year and pleaded not guilty in both cases; trial is set for February 3, 2026, in the NoName matter and April 7, 2026, in the CARR matter.
As described in the indictments, the Russian government backed both groups with financial support. The department said CARR was founded, funded and directed by the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU), attacked public drinking water systems across several states, damaging controls and spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of drinking water, attacked a meat processing facility in Los Angeles in November 2024, spoiling thousands of pounds of meat and triggering an ammonia leak, and also attacked U.S. election infrastructure and websites of U.S. nuclear regulatory entities. NoName was a state-sanctioned project administered in part by an information technology organization established by order of the President of Russia in October 2018, whose members used their proprietary DDoS tool, DDoSia, against government agencies, financial institutions, railways and ports, and paid top-ranking volunteer attackers in cryptocurrency.
The CARR indictment charges Dubranova with conspiracy to damage protected computers and tamper with public water systems, damaging protected computers, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, carrying a statutory maximum of 27 years in federal prison if convicted. The NoName indictment charges one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers, carrying a maximum of five years. The State Department the same day offered rewards of up to $2 million for information on individuals associated with CARR and up to $10 million for information on individuals associated with NoName. The FBI Los Angeles Field Office investigated both cases as part of Operation Red Circus. An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国司法部总部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼（资料照片）。APK 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库标准图。 / Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington (file photo). Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
