Antonov states that Russia does not conduct offensive operations in cyber domain

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov considers the US sanctions against the Russian Central Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics illegitimate. The ambassador stated this on Facebook in response to a media request to comment on Washington’s decision.

“We completely reject the charges brought by the administration against the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Central Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics,” Antonov said.

He noted that Russia, unlike the United States, does not conduct offensive operations in the cybersphere. The ambassador added that malicious activity in the information space is contrary to the principles of Russian foreign policy, national interests and understanding of interstate relations.

“We call on the United States to abandon the vicious practice of unfounded accusations. We proceed from the fact that the interests of our countries are in line with a professional dialogue on international information security, which President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin proposed to restore,” the ambassador stated.

As we reported earlier, the United States imposed sanctions against the Russian Central Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics. Washington accused the company of being linked to the Triton hacker program, ostensibly designed to harm industrial facilities in the United States and its allies.

The Triton malware — known also as TRISIS and HatMan in open source reporting — was designed specifically to target and manipulate industrial safety systems. Such systems provide for the safe emergency shutdown of industrial processes at critical infrastructure facilities in order to protect human life. The cyber actors behind the Triton malware have been referred to by the private cybersecurity industry as “the most dangerous threat activity publicly known.”

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