Russian spooks hack Wi-Fi routers to spy on West
Source: Politico (EU)
April 8, 2026 10:54 am CET
Russia's elite hacking group Fancy Bear is behind a large-scale campaign to spy on militaries and governments by hacking Wi-Fi routers, security agencies in the United States and Europe have said.
Intelligence and law enforcement services in the U.S., Canada, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Poland and others exposed a large-scale operation by the Russian hacking group spying through ill-protected Wi-Fi routers, in a joint statement published late Tuesday. Hackers collected "passwords, authentication tokens and other sensitive information, including emails" by circumventing security protocols and encryption tech, Ukraine's security service SBU said in a statement.
Officials believe the hacking group used the stolen data to conduct cyberattacks, information sabotage and intelligence gathering and focused on military, government and critical infrastructure targets.
“The Russians tried their best to cover all vulnerable routers, while redirecting requests only to domains they were interested in. For example, *.gov.ua, or with names corresponding to Microsoft Outlook, military systems,” said a law enforcement official taking part in the joint operation, granted anonymity to disclose more details.
Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/russias-gru-hacked-hundreds-of-wi-fi-routers-world-wide/