White House: No Changes to Biden-Putin Summit Despite New Hack Blamed on Russia

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The latest cybersecurity breach of a US federal agency that has been attributed to Russia will not impact the upcoming summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday.

Microsoft said a cyber actor identified as Nobelium, who originates in Russia, carried out a widespread malicious email campaign targeting private organizations and government agencies, such as US Agency for International Development.

Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration is aware of the incident and monitoring the situation.

Microsoft said on Thursday that Nobelium is the same actor behind the attacks on SolarWinds customers in 2020. Nobelium has allegedly used USAID’s account for email marketing service Constant Contact to launch the new wave of attacks this week. The hackers are said to have used it to send out phishing emails, distributing a backdoor known as NativeZone, which allows, among other things, to steal data and infect other computers connected to the same network.

The United States has been accusing the Kremlin of being involved in the SolarWinds hack, while Moscow has denied any role in the incident. Earlier in the month, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin expressed the belief that US spy agencies could be behind the hacking attack.

Microsoft said this wave of attacks targeted approximately 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 different organisations. Most of the organisations impacted by the phishing campaign are in the United States, but targeted victims span at least 24 countries. The software company said at least a quarter of the targeted organisations were involved in international development, humanitarian, and human rights work.

Sourse: sputniknews.com