A RENEWED EFFORT

A year after Russian government hackers compromised almost a dozen U.S. federal agencies, renewed efforts by the same group to target the global IT supply chain are painting a picture of a defiant Russia undeterred by U.S. efforts to clamp down on malicious cyber activity.

The Biden administration has imposed sanctions and there has been an unprecedented amount of international pressure on Russia to take action against both government-linked hackers and cybercriminals within its borders.

But the efforts appear to have done little to police the activity given Microsoft’s announcement Monday that the same Russian hacking group behind last year’s SolarWinds hack is continuing to target organizations.

“They have intelligence requirements that they are tasked with fulfilling, and they are unlikely to be deterred from doing that, that’s their job,” John Hultquist, the vice president of intelligence analysis at cybersecurity group Mandiant, told The Hill Monday.

“Until they think that they are not being spied on, Russia’s not going to give up espionage.”