INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A handful of hacker groups aligned with the Russian government have carried out hundreds of cyberattacks against Ukraine since Moscow
invaded, United States tech giant Microsoft said in a report Wednesday.It added that in "hybrid" warfare tactics, Russia often matches
cyberattacks with military assaults on the battlefield."Starting just before the invasion, we have seen at least six separate Russia-aligned
nation-state actors launch more than 237 operations against Ukraine," said Microsoft, which is working with Ukrainian cybersecurity experts
and private companies to counter such attacks.It said the cyber-warfare included "destructive attacks that are ongoing and threaten civilian
welfare."In the first week of the invasion, the report said Russian hackers attacked a major Ukrainian media broadcaster on "the same day
the Russian military announced its intention to destroy Ukrainian 'disinformation' targets and directed a missile strike against a TV tower
in Kyiv."It said the aim of such coordinated attacks was to "disrupt or degrade Ukrainian government and military functions and undermine
the public's trust in those same institutions."Microsoft said it had tracked almost 40 destructive cyberattacks, aimed at hundreds of
systems, a third of which had directly targeted Ukrainian government organizations at all levels, from the national to the local, while
another 40 percent had gone after critical infrastructure.Some of these were so-called "wiper attacks" which delete vital data in the hacked
computer system.The hackers used an array of techniques to gain access to the Ukrainian systems, such as "phishing, use of unpatched
vulnerabilities and compromising upstream IT service providers.""These actors often modify their malware with each deployment to evade
detection," the report said, noting that the cyber-attackers had begun preparing their campaign as early as March 2021, almost a year before
President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine."When Russian troops first started to move toward the border with Ukraine, we
said.Microsoft noted it was "likely the attacks we've observed are only a fraction of activity targeting Ukraine."
