Russian hackers have breached Microsoft's main systems.
Russia-backed hackers accessed some of Microsoft’s key software systems in a cyberattack first disclosed in January, the company said on Friday (8), revealing a more extensive and serious breach than previously known.
Microsoft believes the hackers used information stolen from the company’s corporate email systems in recent weeks to access “some of the company’s source code repositories and internal systems,” the tech giant said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Source code is highly sought after by corporations—and the spies who try to exploit it—because it contains the secret components that make software work. Hackers with access to source code can use it to launch further attacks on other systems.
Microsoft initially revealed the breach in January, just days before another major tech company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, disclosed that the same hackers had compromised their cloud-based email systems. The full scope and precise purpose of the activity remain unclear, but experts say the group involved has a track record of broad information-gathering campaigns in support of the Kremlin.
This same group of hackers was behind the infamous 2020 breach of several U.S. government agencies’ email systems, carried out using software made by the American company SolarWinds. The hackers maintained months-long access to unidentified email accounts and sensitive information from the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, among others, before the espionage operation was discovered.
U.S. officials have linked the hacker group to Russia’s foreign intelligence service. Russia has denied involvement in the operation.
In the years since the 2020 attack, Russian hackers have continued targeting technology companies as part of their ongoing espionage campaigns, according to U.S. officials and private experts.
Based on the activity described on Friday, Microsoft said the hackers may be using the information stolen to “build a map of areas to target and improve their ability to execute on that.”
“So far, we have found no evidence that Microsoft-hosted customer support systems have been compromised,” the company added in a blog post.
Source: CNN
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