Russian hacker collective Midnight Blizzard continues to plague Microsoft. The hackers allegedly used information captured during a previous hacking attempt to access critical systems, possibly capturing source code.
Microsoft did not disclose what source code was involved or how deep the hackers managed to penetrate the systems. However, ‘secret’ information was allegedly stolen from e-mail messages between Microsoft employees and customers. This would include passwords, certificates and authentication keys, reports Reuters news agency. Microsoft has already contacted affected customers and taken measures to minimize the damage.
Tip: Microsoft repeats lessons it hadn’t learned itself before Russian hack
In a statement, Microsoft admits that information from Midnight Blizzard was captured from corporate email systems to gain unauthorized access to source code repositories and internal systems, among other things. According to the company, no Microsoft-hosted customer-facing systems were compromised.
Employee email accounts hacked
The new breach follows an earlier successful hacking attempt in which the same group gained access to the e-mail accounts of high-ranking employees. Microsoft discovered the effects on its corporate environment on January 12 of this year. The actual attack had already taken place in November 2023.
According to U.S. and British intelligence agencies, the group Midnight Blizzard, also known as Nobelium, has ties to Russian intelligence. The group mainly targets Western government agencies, NGOs, and larger IT service providers. Midnight Blizzard was also responsible for the SolarWinds supply-chain attack several years ago.
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