Experts: Russia’s hacking campaign seeks to thwart Georgia’s westward path [Video]

Tbilisi, Georgia — 

Just ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, a Bloomberg investigation has revealed a yearslong Russian hacking campaign targeting Georgia’s government, major companies and critical infrastructure.

Analysts see the large-scale cyberattack, which gave Moscow access to sensitive intelligence and the ability to disrupt essential systems, as part of Russia’s efforts to undermine Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations.

“One of the most shocking revelations was that the [Georgian] Ministry of Foreign Affairs was hacked 114 times, with information gathered from embassies and even high-level officials,” Giorgi Iashvili, a Tbilisi-based cybersecurity expert, told Voice of America’s Georgian service.

“It shows just how deeply the Russian cyber campaigns have penetrated our systems. Not only public institutions were affected, but also the private sector — telecom operators, key energy infrastructure and service providers.”

Between 2017 and 2020, Bloomberg reported, …