Fraudsters, murderers, students: who the GRU assembled a team of hacker provocateurs from and why it failed

According to The Insider, in September 2024 the FBI published an indictment against a group of hackers working for GRU Unit 29155, the same military unit associated with a string of high‑profile cyber operations.

The piece notes that GRU units have long been known, with Unit 26165 (Fancy Bear or APT28) linked to hacks of Hillary Clinton, Emmanuel Macron and various international organisations, and that Sandworm (military unit 74455) has been behind NotPetya and attacks on Ukrainian power facilities and NATO facilities.

It also highlights that Unit 29155 has reportedly engaged in murders and sabotage, and that the Insider managed to access the group’s unprotected server log cache and cross‑reference it with social networks and leaked databases to reconstruct the group’s activities. The article frames this as a surprising finding, given the affair of the GRU’s hacker activities within a unit also tied to violent acts. The post includes a cautionary note that DataBreaches has not verified claims made by government sources or journalists.