Wouldn’t you need to know what tech giants learn about you? That’s precisely what Russian authorities hackers need, too.
On Friday, Microsoft disclosed that the hacking group it calls Midnight Blizzard, also called APT29 or Cozy Bear — and broadly believed to be sponsored by the Russian authorities — hacked some company e mail accounts, together with these of the corporate’s “senior management workforce and staff in our cybersecurity, authorized, and different capabilities.”
Curiously, the hackers didn’t go after buyer knowledge or the standard company data they might have usually gone after. They needed to know extra about themselves, or extra particularly, they needed to know what Microsoft is aware of about them, based on the corporate.
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“The investigation signifies they have been initially concentrating on e mail accounts for data associated to Midnight Blizzard itself,” the corporate wrote in a weblog submit and SEC disclosure.
In accordance with Microsoft, the hackers used a “password spray assault” — basically brute forcing — towards a legacy account, then used that account’s permissions “to entry a really small share of Microsoft company e mail accounts.”
Microsoft didn’t disclose what number of e mail accounts have been breached, nor precisely what data the hackers accessed or stole.
Firm spokespeople didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Microsoft took benefit of stories of this hack to speak about how they’re going to transfer ahead to make itself safer.
APT29, or Cozy Bear, is broadly believed to be a Russian hacking group working answerable for a collection of high-profile assaults, similar to these towards SolarWinds in 2019, the Democratic Nationwide Committee in 2015, and lots of extra.
