Chinese hackers gained unauthorized access to U.S. government email accounts by exploiting a vulnerability within the Microsoft cloud system.
This group of hackers discovered a flaw in Microsoft’s cloud email service to gain access to many government officials’ emails. It has been confirmed by the large tech mogul.
Microsoft reports that the hacking collective known as “Storm-0558” successfully infiltrated around 25 email accounts, encompassing both government agencies and personal consumer accounts associated with individuals linked to these institutions. “Storm” is a term utilized by Microsoft to monitor and identify hacking groups that are emerging, or in the developmental stage.
Adam Hodge, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, confirmed that U.S. government agencies were hit by this group of hackers.
Hodge said, “Last month, U.S. government safeguards identified an intrusion in Microsoft’s cloud security, which affected unclassified systems,” Hodge mentioned in a statement. “Officials immediately contacted Microsoft to find the source and vulnerability in their cloud service. We continue to hold the procurement providers of the U.S. government to a high-security threshold.”
Microsoft’s investigation found the hackers to have breached government officials’ emails through Outlook Web Access in Exchange Online (OWA) and Outlook.com by forging authentication tokens to access user accounts. These hackers were able to fly undetected for about a month until customers alerted Microsoft of sketchy mail activity. These types of hackers were looking to obtain credentials and gain access to data residing in sensitive systems.
Microsoft confirmed that the attack by Storm-0558 was stopped, and they no longer have access to the affected accounts. However, it’s unclear if any sensitive data was taken during the month the hackers had access.
The full extent of the incident is still uncertain. CISA and the FBI are advising any organization that notices unusual activity in Microsoft 365 to report it to them!
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