Russian hackers target NATO, eastern European militaries, Google says

LONDON -

Russian hackers have recently attempted to penetrate the networks of NATO and the militaries of some eastern European countries, Google's Threat Analysis Group said in a report published on Wednesday.

The report did not say which militaries had been targeted in what Google described as "credential phishing campaigns" launched by a Russian-based group called Coldriver, sometimes referred to as Callisto.

"These campaigns were sent using newly created Gmail accounts to non-Google accounts, so the success rate of these campaigns is unknown," the report said.

Russia, which is now under heavy Western economic sanctions following its decision to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24, regularly denies accusations of mounting cyber attacks on Western targets.

In 2019, Finnish cybersecurity firm F-Secure Labs described Callisto as an unidentified and advanced threat actor "interested in intelligence gathering related to foreign and security policy" in Europe.

The group also targeted a NATO Centre of Excellence, Wednesday's Google report said, without elaborating.

In a statement, NATO did not directly address Google's report but said: "We see malicious cyber activity on a daily basis."

"NATO Centres of Excellence work alongside the Alliance but they are not part of NATO as such. We are in touch with them on this issue," the statement said.

(Reporting by James Pearson; editing by Gareth Jones)