A group of hackers aligned with the Russian government has carried out hundreds of cyberattacks against Ukraine since Moscow invaded the neighboring country, Microsoft reported in a report released on Wednesday.
The tech giant highlighted that, as part of a “hybrid” warfare tactic, Russia often combines cyberattacks with military actions on the battlefield.
“Starting just before the invasion, we saw at least six actors from nation-states aligned with Russia launch more than 237 operations against Ukraine,” detailed Microsoft, which is working with Ukrainian cybersecurity experts and private companies to counter these onslaughts. .
The American company claimed that this cyber war included “destructive attacks that are ongoing and threaten the well-being of civilians”.
The report notes that in the first week of the invasion, Russian hackers attacked a major Ukrainian broadcaster “on the same day that the Russian army announced its intention to destroy Ukrainian ‘disinformation’ targets and directed a missile attack against a television tower. in Kiev”.
The US corporation stressed that the purpose of these coordinated attacks was “to disrupt or degrade Ukraine’s military and governmental functions and to undermine the public’s trust in those same institutions.”
Furthermore, Microsoft detailed that it had detected nearly 40 destructive cyberattacks targeting hundreds of systems, a third of which were targeted against Ukrainian government organizations at all levels from national to local, while another 40% were targeted. the country’s critical infrastructure.
“These actors tend to modify their malware with each action to avoid detection,” the report maintains, which also points out that the hackers began preparing their campaign in March 2021, almost a year before Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. .
