Microsoft Warns Danger Of Massive Ransomware Attacks From Russia

JAKARTA— A Russia-based agency behind last year's massive SolarWinds cyberattack has targeted hundreds and more companies and organizations in its latest wave of attacks against US-based computer systems. This statement came from Microsoft in a blog post.

Microsoft, in a blog post dated October 24, said the latest wave of Nobelium targets "retailers and other technology service providers" of cloud services. The attacks were part of a broader campaign over the summer, Microsoft said, adding that it had notified 609 customers between July 1 and October 19 that they had been attacked.

Only a small part of the latest attempt was successful, Microsoft told the New York Times, which first reported the breach, but gave no further details. US cybersecurity officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.

US officials confirmed to the Times that the operation was ongoing, with an unnamed senior administration official calling it "an unsophisticated run-of-the-mill operation that could have been prevented if cloud service providers had implemented basic cybersecurity practices."

“Recent activity is another indicator that Russia is trying to gain long-term systematic access to various points in the technology supply chain and establish mechanisms to monitor – now or in the future – targets of interest to the Russian government," Microsoft wrote.