(Bloomberg) -- Europe employees of at least three pro-democracy think tanks were targeted for sensitive information by a group thought to be associated with the Russian government, according to Microsoft Corp.

Employees of the German Council on Foreign Relations, the German Marshall Fund, and the Europe offices of The Aspen Institute were attacked between September and December 2018, Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said in a blog post.

He said Microsoft was “confident” the attacker was a group it calls Strontium, which it has previously alleged has links to the Russian government.

“We’ve seen recent activity targeting democratic institutions in Europe,” Burt wrote in the blog post. They target organizations “working on topics related to democracy, electoral integrity, and public policy and that are often in contact with government officials,” he said.

Concern Mounts

The attacks jibe with growing fears Russia will attempt to hack upcoming elections. Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Politico this month that Russia would attempt to disrupt this year’s European elections, while French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed it interfered with his campaign in 2017.

An unnamed “sophisticated state actor” conducted a cyber attack on Australian lawmakers this month that breached the systems of the nation’s major political parties, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, ahead of elections expected in May.

Burt said the think tank hacks were carried out using techniques such as “spearphishing,” which dupes victims into opening emailed attachments or links that allow the attacker to both access personal information and deliver malware.

Since 2007, Strontium, also known by the names Fancy Bear and APT28, has targeted government bodies, diplomatic institutions, military forces and installations, journalists and political advisers and organizations, according to Microsoft.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Tweed in Hong Kong at dtweed@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh, Colin Keatinge

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