Microsoft: Russia Using Cyberattacks in Coordination With Military Invasion of Ukraine

In apparent orchestrated coordination with military operations against Ukraine, six Russian state-supported threat actors have targeted civilian infrastructure inside the country with more than 237 individual cyber operations, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft's latest research found that of the nearly 40 separate attacks observed, 32% targeted the Ukrainian government at various levels and 40% could have negatively affected the government, military, economy, and civilian population.

Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president of customer security and trust, explained that the company wanted to reveal the extent that cyber activities play a role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine so the international community can mount an appropriate response. 

"Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Russian cyberattacks have been deployed to support the military’s strategic and tactical objectives," Burt wrote in his blog post about the report's findings. "It’s likely the attacks we’ve observed are only a fraction of activity targeting Ukraine."