Microsoft said a hacker group believed to be linked to the Iranian government carried out a campaign that targeted the accounts of people associated with one of the US presidential candidates.
The report says that Microsoft specialists have recorded “significant” activity in cyberspace from a group called Phosphorous. The hackers' actions were aimed at hacking into the accounts of current and former American government officials, journalists covering world politics, as well as prominent Iranians living abroad.
According to Microsoft, over a 30-day period in August-September, hackers from Phosphorous made over 2700 attempts to seize credentials from different people's email accounts, attacking 241 accounts. Ultimately, hackers hacked four accounts that were not associated with the US presidential candidate.
The message also says that the actions of the hacker group “were not particularly technically sophisticated.” Despite this, the attackers had at their disposal a lot of personal information of the people whose accounts were attacked. Based on this, Microsoft concluded that hackers from Phosphorous are well motivated and are willing to spend the necessary amount of time collecting information about potential victims and preparing attacks.
Microsoft has been tracking the activities of the Phosphorous group since 2013. In March of this year, Microsoft representatives announced that the company had received a court order, on the basis of which 99 websites used by hackers from Phosphorous to carry out attacks were taken under control. According to Microsoft, the group in question is also known as ART 35, Charming Kitten and Ajax Security Team.
Source: 3dnews.ru