In the past year, Microsoft informed about 10,000 users that state-backed hackers were targeting them. The number includes both victims and targets who were not compromised. The vast majority of targets were enterprise customers, i.e. businesses, with individual consumers accounting for about 10% of victims. Nearly all campaigns went after targets in the United States.
Microsoft also detected 781 state-sponsored attacks on systems running AccountGuard, which is used by political campaigns, political parties and government agencies. The tech giant believes that threat actors behind these campaigns were hacking groups from Russia, North Korea and Iran. According to Tom Burt of Microsoft, the report shows that “cyberattacks continue to be a significant tool and weapon wielded in cyberspace. In some instances, those attacks appear to be related to ongoing efforts to attack the democratic process.”
Read more: Microsoft has warned 10,000 victims of state-sponsored hacking
