Russia hacks Georgian government agencies to spy on them - Bloomberg
Photo: in Georgia, Russia hacked government institutions to spy on them (Getty Images)
Russian intelligence structures gathered internal information about the Georgian government and major companies for several years. This was made possible through a large-scale cyber espionage campaign, Bloomberg reports.
According to the news agency, Russia's GRU (Central Intelligence Office) and the FSB (Federal Security Service) gained access to the internal systems of several state institutions and large companies between 2017 and 2020.
Notably, before the 2020 parliamentary elections, the GRU hacked Georgia's Central Election Commission, several major Georgian media outlets, including the country's most popular TV channels Imedi and Maestro, as well as several IT systems of Georgia’s national railway company.
It is also known that hackers linked to the FSB conducted a covert operation in Georgia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to gain access to the emails of high-ranking officials and collect data stored in Georgian embassies worldwide.
The hackers are likely part of the Russian group known as Turla. They also attempted to access the data of seven Georgian officials, including the current Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia and Georgian ambassadors to the US and the EU.
Russian influence on Georgia
In June, the Georgian parliament approved a law on the transparency of foreign influence, similar to the Russian one, which requires organizations receiving foreign funding to register as "foreign agents."
This decision worsened relations with the West, stalled the process of joining the EU, and led the US to impose sanctions on Georgian officials. Additionally, the ruling party introduced a bill restricting LGBTQ+ rights, mirroring Russian legislation.
