Microsoft Claims Win Over ‘Russian Political Hackers’

The BBC has reported that Russian attempts to launch cyber-attacks against US conservative groups have been thwarted, according to Microsoft.

Sam Curry, Chief Security Officer at Cybereason:

“It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone that Russians or other nation-states are probing for sensitive information from conservative, liberal, libertarian leaning organisations. You get the point that if there is valuable information to be gleaned expect groups to be interested in it.

“Today, the biggest risks to organisations are that valuable data and privacy information will be more disperse and harder to monitor, and identities will be easier to steal and use as a result of the new IT global footprint. Security organisations need to think about what they want to protect, how they will monitor distribution and privilege with controls like strong authentication.

“Simply put, doing the basic hygiene and controls isn’t enough today. Everyone should be on strong authentication and monitoring and the “check marks” should be in place; but the most important ‘check mark’ is a true cyber function with forward-leaning, human intelligence monitoring behavioural telemetry. The attackers are human, and in many instances sophisticated. Organisations need teams of people in place to thwart adversarial attempts with the right tools, like EDR tools, that will help the Humans in defence win the cyber conflict. Hygiene alone is not enough.”