Russian-affiliated hackers were positioning themselves for cyberattacks against Ukraine as early as March 2021, according to researchers at Microsoft Corp.
A handful of hacking groups secured access to Ukrainian organizations – including defense, IT and energy networks — for strategic and battlefield intelligence collection, the technology giant revealed in a report published on Wednesday. The campaigns appeared to be setting the groundwork for attacks before and after the invasion began in February.
These previously unreported reconnaissance operations preceded what has become an aggressive and damaging campaign against Ukraine, which has been hit with more than 237 cyberattacks by at least six Russian-affiliated hacking groups since the invasion began, Tom Burt, Microsoft’s vice president for customer security and trust, said in a blog post that accompanied the report.
