Google Says Russian Hackers Targeted NATO, Eastern European Militaries

Russia regularly denies accusations of mounting cyberattacks on Western targets.

By Reuters | Updated: 31 March 2022 11:34 IST

Google Says Russian Hackers Targeted NATO, Eastern European Militaries

The Google report did not say which militaries had been targeted

Highlights

The success rate of cyberattacks is unknown
Campaigns were sent using newly-created Gmail accounts
The group also targeted a NATO Centre of Excellence

Russian hackers have recently attempted to penetrate the networks of NATO and the militaries of some eastern European countries, Google's Threat Analysis Group said in a report published on Wednesday.

The report did not say which militaries had been targeted in what Google described as "credential phishing campaigns" launched by a Russian-based group called Coldriver, or Callisto.

"These campaigns were sent using newly created Gmail accounts to non-Google accounts, so the success rate of these campaigns is unknown," the report said.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

NATO was not immediately available for comment on the report.

Russia, which is now under heavy Western economic sanctions following its decision to invade Ukraine on February 24, regularly denies accusations of mounting cyber attacks on Western targets.

In 2019, Finnish cybersecurity firm F-Secure Labs described Callisto as an unidentified and advanced threat actor "interested in intelligence gathering related to foreign and security policy" in Europe.

Russia Is Pursuing 2 Cases Against Google for Not Removing Banned Content

The group also targeted a NATO Centre of Excellence, Wednesday's Google report said, without elaborating.

In a statement, the centre did not directly address Google's report but said: "We see malicious cyber activity on a daily basis."

Ukraine Crisis: Satellite Modems Nexus of Worst Cyberattack

© Thomson Reuters 2022

Will the 2022 iPhone SE sink or swim? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.