MICROSOFT WARNS RUSSIAN HACKERS STILL TRYING “TO GAIN UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS”

Sun 10 March 2024:

Microsoft announced on Friday that hackers associated with Russia’s foreign intelligence were attempting to breach its networks once more. They were utilizing information pilfered from company emails in January to obtain new entry to the the tech giant, whose products are widely used within the U.S. national security department.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Microsoft’s statement.

“In recent weeks, we have seen evidence that Midnight Blizzard is using information initially exfiltrated from our corporate email systems to gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorized access,” the tech firm said in a new blog.

Previously, Microsoft said the hackers had broken into staff emails by using a dormant account through a “password spray” attack — using the same password on multiple accounts until they break into one. Such attacks increased as much as tenfold in Midnight Blizzard’s latest attempts, compared the January breach, Microsoft said in its blog.

“This seems like it’s something very targeted, and if (the hackers) are that deep inside Microsoft, and Microsoft hasn’t been able to get them out in two months, then there’s a huge concern,” said Adam Meyers, a senior vice president at the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, who tracks nation-state hacking.

“This is the kind of thing that we’re really worried about,” said, Jerome Segura, principal threat researcher at the cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes’ Threatdown Labs.. “The attacker would want to use (Microsoft’s) secrets to get into production environments, and then compromise software and put backdoors and things like that.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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