Russian military-linked hackers spied on European military, energy firms: Microsoft

Microsoft has told its customers that the hackers linked to the Russian military targeted some European military networks, energy and transportation organisations in an apparent spying attempt, CNN reported. 

In some cases, the hackers were able to infiltrate targeted organisations successfully. The spying was even missed for months amid the escalating Russia-Ukraine war. 

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During the ongoing Ukraine war, the Western governments and tech firms were on high alert over concerns over breaches of sensitive data. However, the report highlights that there's the possibility that Russian hacking can slip under the radar despite taking necessary steps. 

Microsoft said that the probe began after the company received a tip-off from Ukrainian officials. The investigation of cyber activity led to the discovery that the Russian hackers used a loophole, basically an exploitation of a previously unknown flaw in Microsoft's email software, between April and December 2022. 

Microsoft says in a security advisory: "The attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted email which triggers automatically when it is retrieved and processed by the Outlook client. This could lead to exploitation BEFORE the email is viewed in the Preview Pane." 

Media outlets reported that Microsoft apparently fixed an Outlook zero-day vulnerability which was exploited by a hacking group linked to Russia's military intelligence service GRU. 

Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

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