A NATO flag is seen at the alliance’s headquarters before a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File Photo
LONDON, March 30 – Russian hackers have recently attempted to penetrate the networks of NATO and the military of some eastern European countries, Google’s Threat Analysis Group said in a report published on Wednesday.
The report did not say which military personnel were targeted in what Google called “credential phishing campaigns” by a Russia-based group called Coldriver or Callisto.
“These campaigns were sent to non-Google accounts via newly created Gmail accounts, so the success rate of these campaigns is unknown,” the report said.
NATO was not immediately available to comment on the report.
Russia, now under severe Western economic sanctions after its decision to invade Ukraine on February 24, regularly denies accusations of escalating cyber attacks on Western targets.
In 2019, Finnish cybersecurity company F-Secure Labs described Callisto as an unidentified and advanced threat actor “interested in gathering intelligence related to foreign and security policy” in Europe.
The group also targeted a NATO center of excellence, Wednesday’s Google report said, without elaborating on it.
In a statement, the center did not directly address Google’s report, but said, “We see malicious cyber activity on a daily basis.”
Reporting by James Pearson Edited by Gareth Jones