Microsoft: Russian cyber spying targets 42 Ukraine allies

CLEVELAND –

In conjunction with unrelenting cyberattacks in Ukraine, state-backed Russian hackers engaged in “strategic intelligence” against governments, think tanks and businesses in 42 countries supporting Kyiv. saidIn a Wednesday report

“Since the beginning of war, the Russian targeting of Ukraine’s allies has been successful 29% of the times,” Brad Smith, Microsoft President, wrote. Data had been stolen in at most one-quarter of successful network intrusions.

Nearly two thirds of the cyberespionage targets were NATO member countries. The United States was the primary target, while Poland was the main conduit for military aid flowing to Ukraine. 2. Over the past two-months, Denmark and Turkey have seen an increase in targeting.

Estonia is an exceptional exception, where Microsoft has its headquarters. saidIt has not detected any Russian cyber intruders since Russia invaded Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2014. Estonia’s adoption cloud computing, which makes it easier to detect intruders, was credited by the company. Microsoft states that there are “significant collective defensive weakness” among other European governments. saidWithout identifying them.

According to the 28-page report, half of the 128 organizations are government agencies while 12% are non-governmental agencies. These are typically think tanks or humanitarian groups. Other targets include companies in the telecommunications, energy, or defense industries.

Microsoft saidThe cyber defenses of Ukraine “have been stronger” than Russia’s in “waves after wave of cyberattacks against 48 distinct Ukrainian entities and agencies.” According to the report, Moscow’s military hackers were careful not to unleash destructive data-destroying viruses that could spread outside Ukraine.

According to “Defending Ukraine: Early lessons from the Cyber War”, “The number of destructive attacks has dropped” over the past month as Russia’s military concentrated its attacks in the Donbas area. Redmond, Washington’s company has unique insight due to the ubiquitous nature of its threat detection and software.

Microsoft saidThe example set by Ukraine in data protection is also an example. Ukraine went from storing its data locally on servers in government buildings a week before the Russian invasion – making them vulnerable to aerial attack – to dispersing that data in the cloud, hosted in data centres across Europe.

The report also examined Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at “undermining Western unity” and deflecting criticisms of Russian military war crimes. It also wooed people from non-aligned nations.

Microsoft uses artificial intelligence tools to create its own artificial intelligence. saidAccording to the report, “Russian cyber-influence operations successfully increased the spread Russian propaganda after war began by 216 percent in Ukraine and 82 percent in the United States.”

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