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There’s a Bunch of Great Band Names Up for Grabs in This New FBI Report on Russian Election Hacking

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GERMANY, BONN - DECEMBER 29: In the suspicion - hacker attacks, election influence, ecomomic and industrial espionage, etc. - the activities of Russia and other nations on the World Wide Web. The symbol photo shows a computer hard drive in which the portrait of the Russian President Putin reflects. (Photo by Ulrich Baumgarten via Getty Images)

On Thursday afternoon, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security released a joint report detailing the attempts Russian state actors apparently made to maliciously influence the 2016 presidential election. The report comes after the U.S. intelligence community publicly alleged that Russian hackers were behind key attacks on the Democratic Party, and is intended in part as evidence to back up those earlier allegations. President Obama also announced the expulsion of 35 Russian intelligence operations officers from the United States Thursday afternoon, in retaliation for the alleged hacking.

This is all a very big deal–the New York Times called it “the strongest American response ever taken to a state-sponsored cyberattack aimed at the United States”–and more capable thinkers on politics and cybersecurity than those of us at SPIN can explain the implications to you. What we’re most concerned about is a list, on page four of the 13-page report, of online aliases allegedly used by the Russian intelligence agents who carried out the attack. The report doesn’t lay out exactly these aliases were used for, but it does make one thing crystal clear: If you’ve just started a new folksy indie ensemble or one-man post-vaporwave Soundcloud project and are looking for a title, you’ve come to the right place.

The full list of Russian state hacker aliases, courtesy of the FBI and DHS, with our favorite band names bolded:

APT28
APT29
Agent.btz
BlackEnergy V3
BlackEnergy2 APT
CakeDuke
Carberp
CHOPSTICK
CloudDuke
CORESHELL
CosmicDuke
COZYBEAR
COZYCAR
COZYDUKE
CrouchingYeti
DIONIS
Dragonfly
Energetic Bear
EVILTOSS
Fancy Bear
GeminiDuke
GREY CLOUD
HammerDuke
HAMMERTOSS
Havex
MiniDionis
MiniDuke
OLDBAIT
OnionDuke
Operation Pawn Storm
PinchDuke
Powershell backdoor
Quedagh
Sandworm
SEADADDY
Seaduke
SEDKIT
SEDNIT
Skipper
Sofacy
SOURFACE
SYNful Knock
Tiny Baron
Tsar Team
twain_64.dll (64-bit X-Agent implant)
VmUpgradeHelper.exe (X-Tunnel implant)
Waterbug
X-Agent

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You’re welcome, everyone. I’ve got dibs on SEADADDY, though. And if you get an email from [email protected] telling you to enter your bank account password and be awarded one million rubles, you probably shouldn’t answer.

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