It was recently reported by Microsoft that government agencies and human rights groups have been targeted by Russian cyber-attacks in 24 countries, most of them in the US.
Indeed, it was found out that around 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organizations had been attacked this week alone. It would seem that the same group responsible for the SolarWinds attacks has orchestrated the attack. However, Russia keeps on denying both cyber-attacks.
Moreover, it was reported that the cyberattacks targeted agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts and that a number of the organizations were involved in international development, humanitarian, and human rights work.
The attacks were launched through access to an email marketing account used by the US federal government’s aid agency, USAID. The hackers have then sent emails that looked authentic and included a malicious link enabling the stealing of data and infecting other computers on a network.
Thankfully, many of the attacks were blocked automatically but it is still unknown how many intrusions attempts were successful.
