A Ukrainian woman, Victoria Eduardovna Dubranova, aged 33 and also known by aliases such as “Vika,” “Tory,” and “SovaSonya,” has been charged with federal crimes in Los Angeles. She allegedly participated in a series of Russian state-sponsored cyberattacks targeting U.S. companies, including an incident where over 2,000 pounds of meat spoiled and an ammonia leak was triggered at a Vernon meat processor, as disclosed in documents unsealed Wednesday by the Department of Justice and reported by NBC Los Angeles.
According to the indictments, Dubranova is accused of tampering with public water systems, causing damage to utilities, organisations, and significant harm to drinking water resources in the U.S. In a statement published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Craig Pritzlaff, the acting assistant administrator, communicated a stern warning, "These criminal charges serve as an unequivocal warning to malicious cyber actors in the U.S. and abroad: EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and our law enforcement partners will not tolerate threats to our nation's water infrastructure and will pursue justice against those who endanger the American public," as cited by NBC Los Angeles.
The Justice Department also announced today its actions against two Russian state-sponsored hacking groups, CyberArmyofRussia_Reborn (CARR) and NoName057(16) (NoName), which Dubranova is alleged to have supported. The groups are linked to a variety of malicious cyber activities at the behest of Russia, including direct threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, as detailed in a release from the Justice Department.
Dubranova, who was extradited to the United States earlier this year, pleaded not guilty to charges in a second indictment related to a separate series of cyberattacks. "Today's actions demonstrate the department's commitment to disrupting malicious Russian cyber activity — whether conducted directly by state actors or their criminal proxies — aimed at furthering Russia's geopolitical interests," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg stated, in wording provided by the Justice Department. Dubranova is set to go to trial in February 2026 for one of the indictments and in April 2026 for the other.
Repercussions of these sustained cyber threats have engaged international law enforcement partners, with considerable efforts to disrupt more than 100 servers across the globe involved in these coordinated attacks. Moreover, the U.S. Department of State has launched reward offers up to $2 million for information related to CARR and up to $10 million for information concerning NoName individuals. Simultaneously, a coalition of U.S. agencies, including the FBI, CISA, NSA, DOE, EPA, and DC3, has issued a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory focused on these pro-Russia hacktivist groups. On the enforcement front, Yuliya Vladimirovna Pankratova and Denis Olegovich Degtyarenko, two members of CARR, have been sanctioned by OFAC for their roles in the cyber operations, as reported on July 19, 2024, by the Justice Department.
