Microsoft 'disrupts' Russian military hackers from targeting websites in Ukraine, US & EU

As Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate for over a month, tech giant Microsoft Corp on Thursday said that it disrupted hacking attempts by Russian military spies that were targeting websites in Ukraine, European Union, and US. In a statement, US-based first said that a group called ‘Strontium’ was using at least seven internet domains in a bid to spy on government bodies and even think tanks in EU, US. hacker group also targeted Ukrainian institutions and media organisations. 

However, Microsoft did not name any targets of attempted breach. It is to note here that ‘Strontium’ is Microsoft’s name for a hacker group which ors often refer to as ‘Fancy Bear’ or ‘APT28’, it is a hacking squ linked to Russian military intelligence. In a blog post published late Thursday, Microsoft said that hacking group linked to Russia’s intelligence group tried to breach security of several government organisations to support Moscow in war with Kyiv.

group which Microsoft called ‘Strontium’, is best known in United States for hacking Democratic National Committee in 2016 election. Microsoft elaborated that group was trying to hack targets to “provide tactical support for physical invasion and exfiltrate sensitive information.”

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

“We have notified Ukraine’s government about activity we detected and action we’ve taken. We have since re-directed se domains to a sinkhole controlled by Microsoft, enabling us to mitigate Strontium’s current use of se domains and enable victim notifications,” it ded. 

Microsoft Corp obtained court order to disrupt hacking

To disrupt cyber activities carried out by ‘Strontium’, tech firm on Wednesday obtained a court order which authorised Microsoft Corp to “take control of seven internet domains Strontium was using to conduct se attacks”. It is also pertinent to note that latest disruption by Microsoft was also second time when a significant American corporation or government agency disclosed that it obtained a court order to target hackers linked to Russia’s military intelligence, GRU.

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