Russia subjected to deluge of nation-state, hacktivist cyber threats

Numerous nation-state and hacktivist threats have targeted Russia during the past year, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Russia and nations previously part of the Soviet Union, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, have been subjected to intrusions from at least 14 state-backed threat operations, including Cloud Atlas and XDSpy, according to a report from Group-IB spinoff F.A.C.C.T.

Most nation-state attacks against Russia involved cyberespionage operations targeted at the country's government and military organizations and other critical infrastructure. While Ukrainian hacktivist operation IT Army continued to be the leading group of cyber volunteers targeting Russia during the past 12 months, both Russia and Belarus were noted to have been attacked by Belarusian Cyber Partisans. "Amid the acute geopolitical conflict, the activity of hacktivists and pro-government hacker groups will not decrease in the near future. Their priority goals will be espionage, theft of intellectual property, and gaining access to company databases," said researchers.