Mobile Tech

Uncovering Russia’s Cyberattack: Amazon Reveals GRU Targeting ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’

Published

3 months ago

December 28, 2025

Amazon is not just a popular e-commerce store and streaming platform; it also boasts its cloud computing platform known as AWS (Amazon Web Services). AWS offers a variety of services, catering to individuals and global enterprises alike. Its pay-as-you-go model allows customers to pay only for the resources they use, eliminating the need to manage physical IT infrastructure.

Last year, AWS reported revenue of nearly $108 billion, with $33 billion generated in the third quarter of 2025. The platform is trusted by numerous private and public sector entities, including big names like Netflix, Disney, Zoom, and NASA, among others.

Recently, Amazon’s Threat Intelligence team uncovered a five-year-long Russian state-sponsored cyberattack. The attack targeted misconfigured devices of AWS clients, rather than exploiting AWS itself. These misconfigurations allowed hackers to gain access to critical infrastructure and harvest credentials.

Despite the attacks being widespread across different regions, the primary objective remained the same—to control and potentially disrupt the power grid. Russia focused on electric utility organizations, energy providers, and other entities with access to critical infrastructure networks, prompting Amazon to take action to mitigate the ongoing threat.

Amazon has taken steps to disrupt active threat actor operations and reduce the attack surface available to this threat activity subcluster. Collaborating with the security community, Amazon aims to defend against state-sponsored threats targeting critical infrastructure.

Amazon also provides guidance to organizations on proactively monitoring and detecting such activities, as well as auditing their devices. While state-sponsored attacks on energy grids are a significant concern, it’s essential for individuals to practice good digital hygiene to protect themselves from scammers and identity thieves. Enhancing security measures on devices and staying vigilant are crucial steps to safeguarding personal information.

global $wp;
. ‘/’;