According to the latest report of Microsoft, Russian-sponsored malicious actors are becoming more successful at breaching targets in the United States and other developed countries. Russia is responsible for most state-sponsored cybercrimes over the past years, Microsoft added.
Russian hackers were found to be involved in 58% of government-linked cyber crimes including crimes on government agencies and think tanks in the United States, followed by Ukraine, Britain, and European NATO members.
Furthermore, other countries like China, North Korea, and Iran, have also been highly active in cyber security crimes on the important infrastructure of governments and non-profit organizations, Microsoft said in its second annual Digital Defense Report, which covers July 2020 through June 2021.
An unusual hack in early 2020, the SolarWinds hack where hackers gained access to the networks, systems, and data of thousands of SolarWinds customers had also been attributed to Russia. The scope of one of the largest, if not the largest, one of its kind ever recorded has been unknown.
After the SolarWinds hack incident, the Russian backed-hackers shifted their focus again on their usual victims like government agencies involved in foreign policy, including defense and national security, think tanks, health care, where they targeted the organizations that were developing and testing COVID-19 vaccines and providing treatments in the USA, Canada, Australia, Israel, Japan, and India.
Meanwhile, China, figured in for 1 in 10 of the state-sponsored cyber attacks; getting a 44% success rate in breaking into victimizing networks, Report discloses.
On the whole, state-backed cybercrimes have a 10%-20% success rate, said Cristin Goodwin, who heads Microsoft’s Digital Security Unit.
“It’s something that’s really important for us to try to stay ahead of — and keep driving that compromised number down — because the lower it gets, the better we’re doing,” Goodwin added.
“2021 brought powerful reminders that to protect the future we must understand the threats of the present. This requires that we continually share data and insights in new ways…”
“…Certain types of attacks have escalated as cybercriminals change tactics, leveraging current events to take advantage of vulnerable targets and advance their activity through new channels”, the report said.