Microsoft: Hackers from Fancy Bear strike sporting and anti-doping organizations

[nanoguy]

What just happened? As Japan gears up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, hackers have increased the rate and sophistication of their attacks. Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center has issued a notice on what appears to be a concerted cyberattack directed at national and international sporting and anti-doping organizations. It turns out it's the work of a well-known Russian hacker group that's been trying to retaliate after Russian Olympic athletes were accused of cheating during the competitions.

Microsoft claims that a well-known hacker group called Strontium or Fancy Bear has attacked at least 16 sporting and anti-doping organizations. The attacks started last month after the World Anti-Doping Agency announced that Russia faces a ban from all major sports events, including world championships and the upcoming Olympics which are set to take place in Tokyo next year.

The company's Threat Intelligence Center spotted the first attack on September 16 and hasn't named any of the organizations that were targeted. The attacks involved a mix of password spraying, spear-phishing, exploiting IoT devices, as well as both open source and custom malware. The methods are routinely used by Strontium against governments, think tanks, human rights groups, and various other organizations.

The good news is that most attacks were unsuccessful. Microsoft notified the affected organizations and offered to help those that requested assistance. To protect yourself from Strontium hacks, the company recommends that you use two-factor authentication on all your email accounts and learn how to spot phishing schemes, so that you don't run the risk of leaking sensitive information from your organization.

Strontium is widely believed to be tied to the Russian government and has previously been linked to attacks that targeted the medical information of hundreds of athletes from almost 30 countries, as well as a chemical weapons organization and a US nuclear power plant. Microsoft hopes to foster international discussions about cybersecurity measures that would prevent future attacks. It's worth noting that CrowdStrike found Russian state-sponsored hackers are faster than those from other nations.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82534-microsoft-hackers-fancy-bear-strike-sporting-anti-doping.html

 

[Bullwinkle M]

Speaking of State Sponsored Hackers....

https://arstechnica.com/information...maker-exploited-its-app-to-infect-1400-users/

Terrorizing the victims with such serious crimes on an Industrial Scale almost sounds like an act of TERRORISM!

If only there were Laws against just such a thing

 

[Uncle Al]

We occasionally hear about our own retaliations against these groups but not nearly enough, in fact the only evidence of even having such a thing are those occasional DOD commercials that brag about it. At this stage it sounds like instead of having a "Space Command" as another branch of military service we need to create a "Cyber Combat Command" and fully fund it. Think about it, you could recruit a lot of young people with a guaranteed 8 hour day plus unlimited off hour gaming. The second one of their games gets attacked it would be unlimited reprisals against the enemy .... who could ask for anything more? Oh yeah, their work rooms would be surrounded with soda and snack machines to keep 'em going!

 

[Capaill]

We occasionally hear about our own retaliations against these groups but not nearly enough, in fact the only evidence of even having such a thing are those occasional DOD commercials that brag about it. At this stage it sounds like instead of having a "Space Command" as another branch of military service we need to create a "Cyber Combat Command" and fully fund it. Think about it, you could recruit a lot of young people with a guaranteed 8 hour day plus unlimited off hour gaming. The second one of their games gets attacked it would be unlimited reprisals against the enemy .... who could ask for anything more? Oh yeah, their work rooms would be surrounded with soda and snack machines to keep 'em going!

Sign me up!
Oh wait, I'm not young.
Sign me up anyway!