2024-01-20 08:38:21
Microsoft says it was hacked by a Russian state-sponsored group. Customer access is not affected, but emails from top managers are.
Microsoft has made a hacker attack public. The company said it had been attacked by a Russian group. Through the attack, the cyber criminals gained access to some of the company’s high-ranking managers’ emails. Members of the management team and employees from cybersecurity, legal and other functions were affected, the company said.
The company did not provide any information regarding who among the company’s management was targeted by the hackers. It also remained unclear how many employee accounts in total were affected. Microsoft emphasized that it was a “very small percentage” share.
The attack was not a result of vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s products or services, it said. There is also no evidence that the attackers had access to customer areas, software source codes or systems with artificial intelligence.
Attack apparently began in November
According to Microsoft, a Russian group known as “Midnight Blizzard” and “Nobelium” is behind the attack. The attack was discovered by Microsoft’s security team on January 12th and subsequently stopped. The software company further announced that the incident was being investigated.
The hackers would have tried out a password on numerous Microsoft accounts from November 2023 onwards – and ultimately succeeded with an old test account. The intruders “first” looked for information regarding the group in the emails, it said, citing initial investigation results.
Connections to the SVR spy service
Microsoft’s threat research team routinely investigates nation-state hackers like the Russian “Midnight Blizzard.” The group is also known as “APT29” or “Cozy Bear” by cybersecurity researchers and, according to US authorities, is linked to the Russian spy service SVR.
The hacker group is best known for its intrusion into the American Democratic National Committee in 2016. The Russian Embassy in Washington and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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