Russian-sponsored hackers have conducted a series of phishing attacks against NATO countries, according to a new industry report.
Palo Alto Networks found scam emails sent by cyber spies working for Russia’s foreign intelligence service, who used online storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox to avoid being detected.
The messages, which were sent between May and June this year, used an apparent agenda for an upcoming meeting with an ambassador as their bait.
A spokesperson for Dropbox said: “We can confirm that we worked with our industry partners and the researchers on this matter, and disabled user accounts immediately.”
The hackers are thought to be part of the same operation that is alleged to have breached SolarWinds in 2020, an attack that gave Russia access to the networks of at least nine US government agencies.
Following that attack, Microsoft President Brad Smith called the incident “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”.
It’s unclear whether this attack was intended to give the Russian government access to NATO networks, although it’s certainly possible. Phishing emails can be used to steal login credentials or plant malware on victims’ systems, giving attackers an array of options when targeting victims.
How worried should we be about SVR?
Although Russia is long associated with nefarious hacking activities, it’s not entirely unprecedented for national governments to employ hackers.
The extent to which this was happening
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