U.S. prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian national for her role in cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure worldwide, including U.S. water systems, election systems, and nuclear facilities, on behalf of Russian state-backed hacktivist groups.
On Tuesday, 33-year-old Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova (also known as Vika, Tory, and SovaSonya) was arraigned on charges related to her alleged role in NoName057(16), after being extradited to the U.S. earlier this year for supporting CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn (CARR).
Dubranova has pleaded not guilty in both cases and is now scheduled for trial in February (on the NoName indictment) and April 2026 (on the CARR matter).
As the indictment reveals, NoName057(16) was a state-sanctioned project partially administered by multiple threat actors, as well as The Center for the Study and Network Monitoring of the Youth Environment (CISM), an information technology organization established by order of the Russian president in October 2018.
The NoName Russian hacktivist group developed a proprietary DDoS tool called DDoSia and recruited global volunteers to launch attacks against government agencies, financial institutions, and critical infrastructure, including railways and ports.
U.S. prosecutors also noted that the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) founded, funded, and directed CARR, a pro-Russia hacktivist group with over 75,000 Telegram followers and more than 100 members (including teenagers), that claimed credit for hundreds of cyberattacks against victims worldwide.
CARR has attacked public drinking water systems across several U.S. states, causing damage to industrial controls and spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of drinking water, and breached the systems of a Los Angeles meat processing facility in November 2024, triggering an ammonia leak and spoiling thousands of pounds of meat, according to the indictment. Additionally, the group targeted websites of nuclear regulatory entities and U.S. election infrastructure.
A GRU officer using the "Cyber_1ce_Killer" online handle instructed CARR leadership on targets and financed the group's access to distributed denial-of-service-for-hire services, the prosecutors added. CARR had over 75,000 Telegram followers and more than 100 members, including teenagers.
Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova (U.S. Justice Department)
If found guilty, Dubranova faces up to 27 years on the CARR charges and up to 5 years on the NoName charges.
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