Russian hackers breached key Microsoft systems

Source: CNN Business

Updated 11:34 AM EST, Fri March 8, 2024


CNN — Russian state-backed hackers gained access to some of Microsoft’s core software systems in a hack first disclosed in January, the company said Friday, revealing a more extensive and serious intrusion into Microsoft’s systems than previously known.

Microsoft believes that the hackers have in recent weeks used information stolen from Microsoft’s corporate email systems to access “some of the company’s source code repositories and internal systems,” the tech firm said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Source code is coveted by corporations — and spies trying to breach them — because it is the secret nuts and bolts of a software program that make it function. Hackers with access to source code can use it for follow-on attacks on other systems.

Microsoft first revealed the breach in January, days before another Big Tech company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said the same hackers had breached its cloud-based email systems. The full extent and exact purpose of the hacking activity isn’t clear, but experts say the group responsible has a history of wide-ranging intelligence gathering campaigns in support of the Kremlin.

The hacking group was behind the infamous breach of several US agency email systems using software made by US contractor SolarWinds, which was revealed in 2020. The hackers had access for months to the unclassified email accounts at the departments of Homeland Security and Justice, among other agencies, before the spying operation was discovered. US officials have attributed the hacking group to Russia’s foreign intelligence service. Russia denied involvement in the operation.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/08/tech/microsoft-russia-hack/index.html