Ministry of Justice and Microsoft stop Russian hacker attacks on US authorities

Ministry of Justice and Microsoft stop Russian hacker attacks on US authorities

Washington-The US Justice Ministry and Microsoft announced the confiscation of more than 100 Internet domains on Thursday, which were allegedly used by a Russian secret service to chop current and former US officials, civil society groups and Russians living in the USA.

goal of hacker attacks

The comprehensive hacker campaign aimed to collect information about the efforts of the United States and its allies to support Ukraine as well as to infiltrate and undermine pro-democratic and human rights organizations in the United States, Great Britain and Eastern Europe, according to US authorities and private experts.

operations against US democracy

This campaign is the youngest in a number of measures by the Ministry of Justice to uncover alleged hidden Russian operations that aim at US democracy, especially with regard to the upcoming presidential elections 2024. Microsoft reported that the hackers did not directly political campaigns or the election infrastructure to focus, but focus on civil society groups Damage, support the functioning democracies.

target groups and methods

From January 2023 to August 2024, the hackers were directed against 30 organizations, including media companies, thinking factories and non -governmental organizations, and stole their sensitive internal data to undermine their activities, reported Steven Masada, a senior legal advisor at Microsoft.

valuable information stolen

The data collected by the hackers also included “sensitive information” about the identity of US government agents as well as US defense and security policies, as can be seen from an affidavit of an FBI agent in this case. This information is "particularly valuable for the efforts of the Russian government to carry out harmful foreign influencing operations in the United States," the explanation says.

previous allegations and international reactions

hacker on behalf of the FSB

The British government accused the same Russian hacker collective last year that they have undertaken “continuous unsuccessful attempts to influence political processes in the United Kingdom” for several years, including the hacking of politicians, civil servants and journalists. These hackers act on behalf of the FSB, the successor of the Soviet KGB, who has far-reaching powers to use his extensive hacking skills to monitor dissidents at home and abroad.

cyber campaigns since Ukraine invasion

Since Russia's extensive invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the FSB and other Russian secret services have been showing tireless efforts to understand and thwart western efforts to support Ukraine with military help.

The dangers of hacker attacks

"A single compromise of a account of a journalist or dissident can trigger a wave of consequences for an entire network of people who endanger their security and freedom," explained John Scott-Railton, researcher at the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, who examined the activities. "That is why it is so important that platforms take measures to impose costs on Russian hacker operations."

success in the fight against cybercrime

The NGO Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a non -profit organization that protects civil society groups from hacking attacks, submitted a lawsuit to the Federal Supreme Court that made it possible to confiscate Microsoft. Natalia Krapiva, leading legal consultant at the non -profit organization Access Now, who supported the case, praised "the courageous victims who registered and shared their stories and data that made this action possible".

no statement from the Kremlin

CNN has a statement by the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C. asked. The Kremlin regularly rejects the US allegations, regardless of how detailed and evidence-based these are allegations.