(Image: file photo)
The Justice Department has indicted the hackers thought to be responsible for the 2016 cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee.
Twelve indictments were filed by the office of US special counsel Robert Mueller, who was brought on last year to investigate Russian interference with the 2016 US presidential election.
Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, made the announcement Friday.
The charges relate to an attack on the systems of the DNC. The hackers launched a successful spearphishing attack against senior officials for the Hillary Clinton campaign and released over 19,000 confidential emails and files through WikiLeaks[1].
Read also: US officially accuses Russia of political cyber attacks[2]
Former FBI director James Comey said during congressional testimony last year he had "no doubt"[3] the Russian government was behind the DNC hack.
According to the Justice Dept., all the alleged hackers work at the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the country's foreign intelligence service.
The charges include counts of criminal conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to hack into the computers of state boards and elections.
The indictments accuse officials from the GRU's so-called Unit 26165, which is dedicated to hacking and cryptoanalysis, of targeting DNC staff, stealing usernames and passwords, and using those credentials to gain a great foothold into the committee's email accounts and other systems.
US prosecutors accuse the Russian intelligence officials of creating a fictitious, public-facing persona, dubbed "Guccifer 2.0," to serve as a conduit for the stolen DNC data and others prior to the 2016 election.
Read also: Did Russia's election hacking break international law?[4]
It's believed several people contacted Guccifer 2.0