New Russian state-sponsored APT quickly gains global reach, hitting expansive targets

newly discovered Russian state-sponsored threat group has targeted a large swath of industries, especially in NATO member states and Ukraine, part of a global espionage campaign in support of Moscow’s interests, Microsoft Threat Intelligence said in a Tuesday blog post. 

Laundry Bear, a group Microsoft tracks as Void Blizzard, has attacked multiple governments and critical infrastructure providers since at least 2024. Dutch intelligence and security services agencies on Tuesday said the group infiltrated the Netherlands’ national police force’s systems in September 2024 and stole work-related contact details on police staff.

“We have seen this hacker group successfully gain access to sensitive information from a large number of government organizations and companies worldwide,” Peter Reesink, director of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense, said in a statement Tuesday, according to a translation. “Laundry Bear is looking for information about the purchase and production of military equipment by Western governments and Western deliveries of weapons to Ukraine.”

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