{"id":133130,"date":"2025-07-31T21:43:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T21:43:51","slug":"microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft catches Russian hackers targeting foreign embassies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Russian-state hackers are targeting foreign embassies in Moscow with custom malware that gets installed using adversary-in-the-middle attacks that operate at the ISP level, Microsoft warned Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The campaign has been ongoing since last year. It leverages ISPs in that country, which are obligated to work on behalf of the Russian government. With the ability to control the ISP network, the threat group\u2014which Microsoft tracks under the name Secret Blizzard\u2014positions itself between a targeted embassy and the end points they connect to, a form of attack known as an <a href=\"https:\/\/attack.mitre.org\/techniques\/T1557\/\">adversary in the middle<\/a>, or AitM. The position allows Secret Blizzard to send targets to malicious websites that appear to be known and trusted.<\/p>\n<h2>Objective: Install ApolloShadow<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWhile we previously assessed with low confidence that the actor conducts cyberespionage activities within Russian borders against foreign and domestic entities, this is the first time we can confirm that they have the capability to do so at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level,\u201d members of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2025\/07\/31\/frozen-in-transit-secret-blizzards-aitm-campaign-against-diplomats\/\">wrote<\/a>. \u201cThis means that diplomatic personnel using local ISP or telecommunications services in Russia are highly likely targets of Secret Blizzard\u2019s AiTM position within those services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/information-technology\/2025\/07\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/information-technology\/2025\/07\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\/#comments\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian-state hackers are targeting foreign embassies in Moscow with custom malware that gets installed using adversary-in-the-middle attacks that operate at the ISP level, Microsoft warned Thursday. The campaign has been ongoing since last year. It leverages ISPs in that country, which are obligated to work on behalf of the Russian government. With the ability to control the ISP network, the threat group\u2014which Microsoft tracks under the name Secret Blizzard\u2014positions itself&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Microsoft catches Russian hackers targeting foreign embassies - UshopWell.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Microsoft catches Russian hackers targeting foreign embassies - UshopWell.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russian-state hackers are targeting foreign embassies in Moscow with custom malware that gets installed using adversary-in-the-middle attacks that operate at the ISP level, Microsoft warned Thursday. The campaign has been ongoing since last year. It leverages ISPs in that country, which are obligated to work on behalf of the Russian government. With the ability to control the ISP network, the threat group\u2014which Microsoft tracks under the name Secret Blizzard\u2014positions itself...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UshopWell.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-31T21:43:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"UShopWell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"UShopWell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"UShopWell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6fd1f9e0ff932e534c86c70d5acff0fc\"},\"headline\":\"Microsoft catches Russian hackers targeting foreign embassies\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-31T21:43:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":209,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ushopwell.com\\\/ublog\\\/microsoft-catches-russian-hackers-targeting-foreign-embassies\\\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft catches Russian hackers targeting foreign embassies - 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The campaign has been ongoing since last year. It leverages ISPs in that country, which are obligated to work on behalf of the Russian government. 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