U.S. Charges Three Iranian Nationals for Election Interference and Cybercrimes

U.S. federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed criminal charges against three Iranian nationals who are allegedly employed with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC for their targeting of current and former officials to steal sensitive data. The Department of Justice DoJ accused Masoud Jalili,...

Hacktivist Group Twelve Targets Russian Entities with Destructive Cyber Attacks

A hacktivist group known as Twelve has been observed using an arsenal of publicly available tools to conduct destructive cyber attacks against Russian targets. "Rather than demand a ransom for decrypting data, Twelve prefers to encrypt victims' data and then destroy their infrastructure with a...

Iran and Hezbollah Hackers Launch Attacks to Influence Israel-Hamas Narrative

Hackers backed by Iran and Hezbollah staged cyber attacks designed to undercut public support for the Israel-Hamas war after October 2023. This includes destructive attacks against key Israeli organizations, hack-and-leak operations targeting entities in Israel and the U.S., phishing campaigns...

Cadet Blizzard emerges as a novel and distinct Russian threat actor

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its second year and Microsoft continues to collaborate with global partners in response, the exposure of destructive cyber capabilities and information operations provide greater clarity into the tools and techniques used by Russian state-sponsored...

A Destabilizing Hack-and-Leak Operation Hits Moldova

Plus: Google’s location snooping ends in a $391 million settlement, Russian code sneaks into US government apps, and the World Cup apps set off alarms...

Microsoft Warns About Phishing Attacks by Russia-linked Hackers

Microsoft on Monday revealed it took steps to disrupt phishing operations undertaken by a "highly persistent threat actor" whose objectives align closely with Russian state interests. The company is tracking the espionage-oriented activity cluster under its chemical element-themed moniker...

Disrupting SEABORGIUM’s ongoing phishing operations

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center MSTIC has observed and taken actions to disrupt campaigns launched by SEABORGIUM, an actor Microsoft has tracked since 2017. SEABORGIUM is a threat actor that originates from Russia, with objectives and victimology that align closely with Russian state...

Foreign Meddling Flooded the 2020 Election—but Not Hackers

A new ODNI report shows how extensive Russian and Iranian influence operations were, but it doesn’t mention a single hack-and-leak incident...

Facebook Busts Russian Disinfo Networks as US Election Looms

The campaigns primarily targeted countries outside the US. But the same mechanisms could be used in “hack and leak” operations like those that roiled the 2016 campaign...

Framing the Problem: Cyber Threats and Elections

This year, Canada, multiple European nations, and others will host high profile elections. The topic of cyber-enabled threats disrupting and targeting elections has become an increasing area of awareness for governments and citizens globally. To develop solutions and security programs to counter...