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Russian hackers hit 150 firms in latest cyber attack: Microsoft

After going through an attack by a China-based cyberattack that hit the business of the email servers this year, Microsoft has now warned against an attack from the Russia-based threat.

Microsoft Finds Russia-based Cyberattack 

As per the latest reports, Microsoft issued a warning claiming of an ongoing “sophisticated” attack from Russia based cyberattack. The attack is reportedly threatening government agencies, consultants, NGOs and their customers across the globe.

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A Russia-based hacker group named Nobelium is said to be targeting around 3000 email accounts across 150 organizations. Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security and Trust at Microsoft said that the organisations in the United States have received a large share of attacks.

Burt further said that the attacks seem to be continuation of multiple efforts by the said company that targets foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts. He further informed that many of the attacks targeting the Microsoft customer were blocked automatically.

They are in the process of informing the customers who might have been attacked.

Nobelium Launches Attacks Via Email Marketing 

Reports suggest that the attacks launched by Nobelium are via Constant Contact account of USAID. It is a service for email marketing. From there, they distribute phishing emails that look authentic and include a link. If the person clicks on the link, a malicious files enters the system.

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Nine federal agencies and about 100 private sector companies were compromised as a result of the SolarWinds hack previously. After SolarWinds, at least 30,000 organisations across the US, including government and commercial firms, were hit by a China-based espionage group called ‘Hafnium’ earlier this year, who exploited four vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server email software.

Burt released a statement in March said that Hafnium which is based in China. Alarmed at repeated cyber-attacks on the country especially after at a key fuel pipeline last week, US President Joe Biden this month signed an executive order, implementing new policies to improve national cybersecurity across the country.