Thu 28 April 2022:
US-based multinational tech firm Microsoft said Wednesday in a report that Russia has carried out hundreds of cyber operations, including destructive attacks, against Ukraine throughout its invasion.
In a report prepared with Ukrainian cybersecurity officials and private sector companies, Microsoft said: “The cyber component of Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been destructive and relentless.”
Six separate Russia-aligned nation-state actors have carried out at least 237 operations against Ukraine, according to the report.
Nearly 40 of those operations were destructive attacks aimed at permanently destroying files in hundreds of systems across dozens of organizations in Ukraine.
40% of the destructive attacks were directed toward critical infrastructure that could have “negative second-order effects” on the government, military, economy and people, Microsoft said.
It added that a day before Moscow’s military attack in Ukraine, operators associated with the Russian military intelligence service launched destructive cyberattacks on hundreds of systems in the Ukrainian government, information technology, energy and financial organizations.
“Based on Russian military goals for information warfare, these actions are likely aimed at undermining Ukraine‘s political will and ability to continue the fight, while facilitating collection of intelligence that could provide tactical or strategic advantages to Russian forces,” the report said.
Microsoft acknowledged in the report that there may be ongoing cyber activity that it cannot see and warned that if the Russian actors “maintain the current pace of development and deployment, we anticipate more destructive malware will be discovered as the conflict continues.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
