The tech giant said hacking attempts were successful in 29% of cases and data was stolen in at least a quarter of successful network intrusions. Nearly two-thirds of the targets were NATO members and the US was the main target, he added. Putin’s power in Russia “erodes” – latest updates on the war in Ukraine Poland – the main military aid pipeline to Ukraine – was second, while Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Turkey have seen increased targets in the past two months. A striking exception was Estonia, where Microsoft said it had not detected any Russian cyber-attacks since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. The company credits the adoption of cloud computing by Estonia, where it is easier to detect intruders. Microsoft warned that “significant collective defense weaknesses remain” among some other European governments, without identifying them. In 42 countries, half of the 128 organizations targeted were government agencies and 12% were non-government agencies, usually think tanks or humanitarian groups, according to a Microsoft report. Other targets included telecommunications, energy and defense companies. Microsoft said Ukraine’s cyber defense “has proven to be stronger” overall than Russia’s capabilities in “waves of catastrophic cyber-attacks.” Read more: US cyber leader on Kiev’s advantage over Russia US military hackers conduct aggressive operations in support of Ukraine Image: Photo: AP Moscow military hackers have been careful not to launch destructive worms that destroy data that could spread outside Ukraine, as the NotPetya virus did in 2017, the report said. “Over the past month, as the Russian army moved to focus its attacks on the Donbas region, the number of catastrophic attacks has decreased,” he said. The report also assessed Russian misinformation and propaganda aimed at “undermining Western unity and diverting criticism of Russian war crimes.” Microsoft said it was using artificial intelligence tools to estimate that “Russian cyber-infiltration operations have successfully increased the spread of Russian propaganda since the start of the war by 216% in Ukraine and 82% in the United States.”
