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Yossi Rachman, Senior Director, Security Research, Semperis:

At this particular time, cybersecurity industry pundits and thought leaders have been floating a variety of opinions on what is motivating Midnight Blizzard to conduct these targeted attacks. There is a high probability that Russia’s intelligence service is also involved, and while they might claim plausible deniability, we know Midnight Blizzard is linked to the highest levels of the Russian government. Currently, it is highly likely they are on an information gathering mission to glean any information HP security pros and Microsoft has on Russian-backed attack groups and the Russian cyber offensive efforts as a whole. In addition, with the U.S. Presidential primary season kicking off and a national election taking place in November, the start of a variety of disinformation campaigns has to be on the minds of government officials as tactics to be used by Russia, their allies or threat actors that sympathise with them.