Hong Kong/London (CNN Business)The hackers behind one of theworst data breaches everto hit the US government have launched a new global cyberattack on more than 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations, according to Microsoft.
The group, which Microsoft calls "Nobelium," targeted 3,000 email accounts at various organizations this week — most of which were in the United States, the companysaid in a blog postThursday.It believes the hackers are part of the same Russian group behind last year's devastating attack onSolarWinds— a software vendor — that targeted at least nine US federal agencies and 100 companies.
Cybersecurityhas been a major focusfor the US government following the revelations that hackers hadput malicious codeinto a tool published by SolarWinds. A ransomware attack that shut down one of America's most important pieces of energy infrastructure — the Colonial Pipeline — earlier this month has only heightened the sense of alarm. That attack was carried out by acriminal group originating in Russia, according to the FBI.Microsoft(MSFT)said that at least a quarter of the targets of this week's attacks were involved in international development, humanitarian, and human rights work, across at least 24 countries. It said Nobelium launched the attack by gaining access to a Constant Contact email marketing accountused by the US Agency for International Development (USAID)."These attacks appear to be a continuation of multiple efforts by Nobelium to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts," the company said.