Microsoft claims win over 'Russian political hackers'
Russian attempts to launch cyber-attacks against US conservative groups have been thwarted, Microsoft says. The software company said Russian hackers had tried to steal data from political organisations, including the International Republican Institute and the Hudson Institute think tanks. But they had been thwarted when its security staff had won control of six net domains mimicking their websites.
Microsoft said the Fancy Bear hacking group had been behind the attacks. "We're concerned that these and other attempts pose security threats to a broadening array of groups connected with both American political parties in the run-up to the 2018 elections," Microsoft said in its blog detailing its work.
The thwarted attack was likely the start of a "spear phishing" campaign, said Microsoft. This would involve tricking people into visiting the mimicked domains allowing the Fancy Bear group to see and steal login information that people use. As well as the two think-tanks, the domains seized were associated with several Senate offices and services. One domain sought to mimic Microsoft's Office 365 online service.
Russia has denied Microsoft's allegations that it targeted the right-wing think-tanks.
Also at NYT, Reuters, and The Hill.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @07:43PM (3 children)
Actually, these are phishing attempts that try to trick someone into clicking a link and entering their username & password in a fake version of <insert name of service here>. As much as I loath Microsoft, they are not to blame for people's irresponsible email practices.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @10:03PM
Perhaps. But Microsoft is to blame for most people's irresponsible e-mail clients and browsers, that made such attacks viable in the first place.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @11:42PM (1 child)
I had to stop using outlook because they were obscuring the origin of every link by redirecting it through some microsoft server. I really doubt microsoft is on the anti-phishing side.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday August 22 2018, @03:48AM
There is a uservoice item to make human-readable safelinks:
https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/289138-office-365-security-compliance/suggestions/15092445-pretty-links-for-atp-safe-links [uservoice.com]
It's a good idea, and worth an upvote.