Amazon Stops Russian GRU Hackers Targeting Cloud Edge Devices in 2025
In December 2025, Amazon's Threat Intelligence team thwarted a sophisticated cyber-espionage campaign attributed to the Russian GRU, which actively targeted Western critical infrastructure via AWS cloud environments. Beginning in 2021 and intensifying through 2025, the threat actors transitioned from exploiting known and zero-day vulnerabilities to targeting misconfigured customer-managed edge devices such as VPN gateways and network appliances hosted on EC2. This allowed them to gain persistent access, harvest credentials, and move laterally within networks, yet there was no compromise of AWS's own infrastructure. Amazon responded rapidly by securing affected instances, notifying customers, and sharing threat intelligence with partners. This incident highlights the growing trend of state-sponsored groups shifting from vulnerability exploitation to leveraging customer misconfigurations. The persistent focus on edge devices underscores the importance of robust configuration and monitoring practices, especially as critical infrastructure organizations move sensitive operations into the cloud.
Kill Chain
