Microsoft Claims Recently Detected Cyberattacks On European Democratic Institutions

Daniyal Sohail Published February 20, 2019 | 05:10 PM

The Microsoft tech giant on Wednesday said that it had recently detected malware attacks on the European democratic institutions, including think tanks and non-profit organizations such as the German Council on Foreign Relations and the German Marshall Fund

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2019) The microsoft tech giant on Wednesday said that it had recently detected malware attacks on the European democratic institutions, including think tanks and non-profit organizations such as the German Council on Foreign Relations and the German Marshall Fund.

"At Microsoft, we've seen recent activity targeting democratic institutions in Europe as part of the work our Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) ... 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 and European offices of The Aspen Institute and The German Marshall Fund," the company wrote in its EU Policy Blog.

Over 100 accounts of employees located in Belgium, France and other European countries have been targeted by hackers, according to the statement.

"MSTIC continues to investigate the sources of these attacks, but we are confident that many of them originated from a group we call Strontium. The attacks occurred between September and December 2018. We quickly notified each of these organizations when we discovered they were targeted so they could take steps to secure their systems, and we took a variety of technical measures to protect customers from these attacks," Microsoft added.

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it had made its AccountGuard "state-of-the-art cybersecurity service" available in 12 more European countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands. Thus, the service, which is provided "free-of-charge to organizations using Office 365" is now available in 14 European states. AccountGuard has been developed to protect politicians and parties as well as nongovernmental organizations from attacks targeting democratic institutions.