A Hacker Group Within Russia’s Notorious Sandworm Unit Is Breaching Western Networks
1 min read
Summary
Sandworm is a notorious hacking group linked to Russia’s GRU military intelligence and is believed to be the Kremlin’s most aggressive cyberwar unit.
Now Microsoft has warned that a team within that group, called BadPilot, has changed its targeting and is indiscriminately trying to breach networks worldwide.
Over the last year, BadPilot has shown a particular interest in English-speaking Western countries, especially the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, targeting sectors such as energy, oil and gas, telcos, shipping, arms manufacturing and government.
Microsoft says that after BadPilot gains access it hands it off to other Sandworm hackers to steal information or launch cyberattacks.
The company stressed that BadPilot has so far shown no intention of doing anything other than espionage, but expressed concern about the group’s potential actions.
