Russian hackers unleash blizzard of spam in response to sanctions

Russian hackers are angry with Western sanctions, and they’re responding with a blizzard of spam.

“We, a group of hackers from the Russian Federation, are worried about the unreasonable sanctions that Western states imposed against our country,” an email sent out by the hackers reads, according to internet security company Bitdefender, Vice News reported Thursday.

Users are led to believe that by clicking the email they will receive software that can attack Western computers, but if they do their system is hijacked by the hackers’ network. The malware then steals log-in credentials, monitors internet traffic and downloads additional malicious files, Vice News reported. 

Bitdefender Labs believes that 40 percent of the infected computers are in Ukraine.

The FBI confirmed Wednesday that it is working with the Secret Service to identify the individuals behind August cyber-attacks JPMorgan Chase that appeared to be too sophisticated for hackers acting without state sponsorship, The Associated Press reported. The agency believes that Russian hackers were involved.