Microsoft reveals in a report the “relentless” Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine since the invasion began two months ago

Microsoft released a report on Wednesday in which detailed the “relentless” cyberattacks perpetrated by Russia against Ukraine in a hybrid war parallel to the real one which also began on dates close to the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin.

According to this report, just before the start of the invasion on February 24 at least six Russian attackers linked to the Kremlin provoked 237 operations against Ukrainian systems that directly affected many essential social services.

The attacks not only damaged the systems of various Ukrainian institutions but also they also made it difficult for Ukrainians to access necessary information for citizens at that time, in many cases to “critical” services on which they depended.

Among these cyberattacks on “crucial” targets, Microsoft cited one against “a large media outlet” on the same day that Russia announced its intention to “destroy Ukrainian disinformation” and brought down a television tower with missiles.

Another example was the March 13 theft of data from a nuclear security organization, just before Russia attacked several plants and raised concerns about radiation risks.

And he talks about cases of disinformation as a mass email from a Russian “hacker” and sent to thousands of Ukrainian citizens in which an alleged resident of Mariupol falsely accused the Ukrainian government of having abandoned them.

According to Microsoft, with these damages Russia also intended to destroy the trust of the citizens of Ukraine in their leaders.

The report speaks of about 40 “destructive attacks” of which 30% were directed to national, local and regional government organizations.

Another 40% of these attacks targeted organizations in the infrastructure sector and may have had negative effects on the country’s military, economy and citizens.

The report does not just talk about the months of the invasion, it goes back a long time to show that Russia had been preparing for a long time.

Thus, he points out that from March 2021 actions against many Ukrainian systems began to increase, and when Russian troops began to approach the country Greater efforts were detected to access systems that could provide intelligence information on the country’s army or its allies.

Anonymous claims to have hacked Russian TV channels to show images of war in Ukraine

The technology company considered it necessary to publish this report so that governments and citizens know “what is happening” and continue working to identify this type of attack and defend against it.

The ultimate goal of the publication is to protect civilians, according to Microsoft, who claimed to have worked with the Ukrainian authorities to identify and try to stop these threats. (I)