Microsoft accused Russian hackers of a global attack on the United States

He wrote on his blog that the cyberattack targeted thousands of mailboxes in 150 human rights organizations. Although the United States is the main target of the hackers, Bert points out that at least 24 countries were also affected.

He explained that cybercriminals were sending letters on behalf of the United States Agency for International Development. The letters contained a link to a file with a malicious program. This program could steal data or infect other computers on the network. He clarifies that most of these emails were blocked.

The company pointed out that similar cyberattacks often reflect the concerns of their countries: the Russian hacker group Stonium, Bert said, previously carried out an attack on medical organizations, and in 2019 - sports and anti-doping.

“This is another example of how cyberattacks have become a favorite tool of states to achieve a wide range of political goals”, - the company's vice president said in a statement.

It's worth reminding that it was the Nobelium group that was called involved in the attack on US government agencies through the SolarWinds software. For example, in April it became known that for several months, while US officials did not know about the cyberattack on government agencies through the SolarWinds software, Russian hackers found out the names of several key analysts of the Department of Homeland Security (IDB).

In December 2020, hackers broke into the American SIPRNET system, which is used for internal communication in the US government.