Microsoft ‘blocks’ Russian military hackers from targeting websites in Ukraine, US and EU

As the Russian-Ukrainian war continues to escalate for more than a month, tech giant Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it had halted hacking attempts by Russian military spies that targeted websites in Ukraine. , in the European Union and in the United States. In a statement, the US company first said that a group called ‘Strontium’ was using at least seven internet domains with the aim of spying on government agencies and even think tanks in the EU and US. . The hacker group also targeted Ukrainian institutions and the media.

However, Microsoft did not name any target of the attempted breach. It should be noted here that “Strontium” is Microsoft’s name for a group of hackers that others often refer to as “Fancy Bear” or “APT28”, it is a hacking squad linked to Russian military intelligence. In a blog post published Thursday evening, Microsoft said the hacking group linked to the Russian intelligence group had tried to breach the security of several government organizations to support Moscow in the war with kyiv.

The group that Microsoft called “Strontium” is best known in the United States for hacking into the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election. physically and exfiltrate sensitive information”.

“We believe Strontium was attempting to establish long-term access to its targets’ systems, provide tactical support for physical invasion, and exfiltrate sensitive information,” the technology company said.

“We have informed the Ukrainian government of the activity we have detected and the actions we have taken. We have since redirected these domains to a sinkhole controlled by Microsoft, allowing us to mitigate Strontium’s current use of these domains and enable victim notifications,” he added.

Microsoft Corp got court order to disrupt hack

To disrupt the cyber activities carried out by “Strontium”, the technology firm on Wednesday obtained a court order allowing Microsoft Corp to “take control of seven Internet domains that Strontium used to carry out these attacks”. It’s also pertinent to note that Microsoft’s latest disruption was also the second time a major US company or government agency revealed it had obtained a court order to target hackers linked to Russian military intelligence, GRU. .

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