Hackers from Russia have been exploiting a flaw in Microsoft’s Windows OS to keep watch on computers used by NATO and the foreign governments, a new report claimed.
The five-year cyber espionage campaign dubbed ‘Sandworm’ is still reportedly underway, cyber-intelligence firm iSight Partners noted in its report.
Hackers have been using a zero-day exploit affecting all the versions of the Windows released since Windows Vista, to access computers of Polish energy firm; a Western European government agency; and a French telecommunications firm.
However, the security firm was not able to trace the type of data accessed by hackers, while speculating that they were seeking data about the Ukrainian crisis, in addition to about diplomatic, energy and telecom issues, based on the targets.
NATO spokesman said in a statement to BBC: "Nato is looking into evidence of potential hacking or other exploitations on its networks that are linked to the internet, in light of this report.
"This analysis is being conducted by our experts using knowledge gained from previously mitigated cyber-campaigns against Nato, to asses any potential ramifications.
"No impact is expected on Nato’s classified operational networks, which are isolated from the internet."
The security firm also observed that campaign used different ways to attack the targets over five years, while noting that hackers started exploiting the zero-day vulnerability in Windows since August this year.
Researchers believe that the hackers could be from Russia based on the use of language clues in the software code and their targets.
