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Nation-State critical Russia

APT29

Russian state-sponsored (SVR) · Espionage / intelligence collection / supply chain access

Reports 2
Active Since 2008
Last Reported 4 Jun 2026
Sectors Targeted government, critical-infrastructure, finance

Tactics, Techniques & Procedures (TTPs)

  • Supply chain compromise (SolarWinds Orion, IT service providers)
  • OAuth application abuse for persistent cloud tenant access
  • Residential proxy networks for detection evasion
  • WINELOADER and ROOTSAW staged downloaders
  • Dormant account reactivation in cloud directories
  • Cloud management plane lateral movement

Known Targets

US and EU government agenciesDefence contractorsTechnology vendors and MSPsCOVID-19 vaccine research institutionsMicrosoft corporate infrastructure

Analyst Notes

SVR Foreign Intelligence Service. The SolarWinds Orion supply chain compromise (2020) affected approximately 18,000 organisations and provided access to multiple US federal agencies. Compromised Microsoft senior leadership email in January 2024 while actively searching for information about APT29 detection capabilities — a sophisticated counter-intelligence operation.

Also Known As

Cozy BearMidnight BlizzardNOBELIUMThe DukesDark Halo

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

T1195.002 Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Supply Chain T1550.001 Use Alternate Authentication Material: Application Access Token T1078 Valid Accounts T1090.002 Proxy: External Proxy T1071.001 Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols

Intelligence Reports

Analysis governmentcritical-infrastructure

Midnight Blizzard: A Complete Profile of Russia's SVR Espionage Apparatus

APT29 — Cozy Bear, Midnight Blizzard — is Russia's SVR-aligned intelligence collection machine, responsible for SolarWinds, the 2024 Microsoft corporate email compromise, and ongoing targeting of European governments, diplomatic missions, and defence industrial base organisations. This deep dive covers their full operational history, tradecraft, tooling, and what defenders need to be doing now.

4 Jun 2026 · 15 min read
Briefing governmentcritical-infrastructure

APT29 Exploiting Trusted Vendor Relationships to Reach UK and European Government Networks

Russia's SVR-linked APT29 is using compromised software vendor and IT service provider accounts to pivot into government targets -- a continuation of the SolarWinds playbook applied to UK and European supply chains.

21 May 2026 · 6 min read