Created by Ajay Kumar
Last edited September 26, 2023

Turla or Uroboros (Russian: Турла) is a Trojan package that is suspected by computer security researchers and Western intelligence officers to be the product of a Russian government agency of the same name.[1][2][3]

High infection rates of the virus were observed in Russia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam, followed by US and China, and low infection rates in Europe, South America and Asia (including India).[4]

Malware[edit | edit source]

Turla has been targeting governments and militaries since at least 2008.[2][5][6]

In December 2014 there was evidence of it targeting operating systems running Linux.[7]

Group[edit | edit source]

The advanced persistent threat hacking group has also been named Turla.[1] The group has probably been operating since the late 1990s, according to professor Thomas Rid of Johns Hopkins University.[8] Dan Goodin in Ars Technica described Turla as "Russian spies".[9] Turla has since been given other names such as Snake, Krypton, and Venomous Bear.

US actions against group[edit | edit source]

In May 2023 the United States Department of Justice announced that the United States had managed to infiltrate machines that were infected by the malware and issue a command ordering the malware to delete itself.[8] Affidavits from the FBI and DOJ revealed that the group was part of the Russian Federal Security Service Center 16 group in Ryazan.[8]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Russian Britney Spears Instagram hackers also used satellites to hide their tracks". Boing Boing. 8 June 2017.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Suspected Russian spyware Turla targets Europe, United States". Reuters. 2014-03-13.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2018-03-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ "Turla Hiding in the Sky: Russian Speaking Cyberespionage Group Exploits Satellites to Reach the Ultimate Level of Anonymity". kaspersky.com. 26 May 2021.
  5. ↑ Brewster, Tom (7 August 2014). "Sophisticated 'Turla' hackers spying on European governments, say researchers". The Guardian.
  6. ↑ "Turla: Spying tool targets governments and diplomats".
  7. ↑ Baumgartner, Kurt. "The 'Penquin' Turla". securelist.com.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Greenberg, Andy (2023-05-20). "The Underground History of Russia's Most Ingenious Hacker Group". Wired. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
  9. ↑ "You'll never guess where Russian spies are hiding their control servers". Ars Technica. 6 June 2017.

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