Hackers linked to the Russian intelligence service have hacked the e-mail accounts of the leading employees of the US computer technology giant Microsoft.
Microsoft identified the cyber attackers as the Midnight Blizzard group, which the US and UK governments have linked to Russia’s foreign intelligence service.
The attacker is known to primarily target governments, diplomatic entities, non-governmental organizations and IT service providers mainly in the US and Europe, Microsoft said in a blog post published last August detailing a previous cyber attack.
Their focus is intelligence gathering, long-term and targeted spying on foreign interests.
According to information provided by Microsoft, the activities of “Midnight Blizzard”, also known as “Nobelium”, have been traced back to the beginning of 2018.
Microsoft’s security team discovered the latest attack on January 12, triggering protection measures that blocked hackers from further access, the company announced.
The attack began last November when hackers tried the password on several accounts and gained access to an old test account, according to Microsoft.
Hackers then used this “stepping point” to gain access to some Microsoft corporate email accounts, including those of senior executives and members of the security team, by taking over the emails and the documents attached to them.
“Investigation indicates that they initially targeted email accounts to obtain information related to Midnight Blizzard itself,” Microsoft said.
According to information provided by Microsoft, there is no evidence that hackers have accessed customer accounts, production systems, source code or artificial intelligence software at the company.
2024-01-20 12:56:26
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