Burt said the campaign appeared to be a continuation of efforts by the Russian hackers to “target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence-gathering efforts”. The hackers gained access to USAid’s account at Constant Contact, an email marketing service, Microsoft said. The Microsoft president, Brad Smith, has previously described the SolarWinds attack as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”. This month, Russia’s spy chief denied responsibility for the SolarWinds attack but said he was “flattered” by the accusations from the US and Britain that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack. The US and Britain have blamed Russia’s foreign intelligence service, successor to the foreign spying operations of the KGB, for the SolarWinds attack.

Source: The Guardian May 28, 2021 09:22 UTC