Microsoft: Political Organizations In Europe, Including Romania, Targeted By Cyber Attacks

In a statement posted on one of the company’s blogs, Microsoft announced that it will implement its AccountGuard cybersecurity system in 12 new markets throughout Europe, after it observed recent attacks against European democratic institutions.

“At Microsoft, we’ve seen recent activity targeting democratic institutions in Europe (…).These attacks are not limited to campaigns themselves but often extend to think tanks and non-profit organizations working on topics related to democracy, electoral integrity, and public policy and that are often in contact with government officials. For example, Microsoft has recently detected attacks targeting employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations, The Aspen Institutes in Europe and The German Marshall Fund,” the company announced.

According to Microsoft, the attacks specifically targeted 104 accounts of organization employees in Romania, Belgium, Germany, France, Poland and Serbia between September and December 2018, and are believed to have originated from a group nicknamed Strontium.

While the tech giant does not mention the group’s country of origin, it said that the attacks were “consistent” with past campaigns attributed to Russian hackers against similar US-based institutions.

Moscow has continuously denied any involvement in these types of campaigns throughout the past couple of years.