Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Amin Stigal is a malicious cyber actor linked to the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, also known as Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), and to its WhisperGate malware operations.

GRU hackers deployed WhisperGate malware in a series of destructive cyber attacks against Ukrainian government agencies and private sector organizations in advance of Russia’s subsequent invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. These malicious cyber operations defaced Ukrainian websites, leaked stolen data on public forums controlled by GRU actors, and rendered the compromised Ukrainian data and systems unrecoverable.

These GRU actors are known to have targeted U.S. critical infrastructure. During these malicious cyber activities, GRU actors launched efforts to scan for vulnerabilities, map networks, and identify potential website vulnerabilities in U.S.-based critical infrastructure – particularly the energy, government, and aerospace sectors.

As early as 2021, digital environments managed by Amin Stigal were used to stage malicious payloads used in various WhisperGate malware campaigns. Stigal is linked to WhisperGate operations against Ukrainian, NATO, and U.S. computer networks and has conspired with others to establish accounts on a social communications platform for use in WhisperGate operations.

Anyone with information on Amin Stigal’s and the GRU’s malicious cyber activity, or associated individuals and entities should contact Rewards for Justice via the Tor-based tips-reporting channel at: he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion(Tor browser required).