Microsoft Corp states that malicious software was found in their network management systems from SolarWinds Corp. The U.S. officials speculated this might be a part of the massive hacking campaign. This added a top technology target to a growing list of attacked government agencies. People who are quite familiar with the hacking sprees declared that the hackers used Microsoft cloud offerings but avoided Microsoft’s corporate infrastructure.
Security of Microsoft software at stake
The U.S. National Agency has issued a rare “cybersecurity advisory.” This has elaborated how the hackers compromised the Microsoft Azure cloud services. Consequently, the users were locked out of their systems.
A Microsoft spokesperson said, “Like other SolarWinds customers, we have been actively looking for indicators of this actor and can confirm that we detected malicious Solar Winds binaries in our environment, which we isolated and removed.” The person also stated that the company found no clues whether their systems were used to hack and attack others.
Microsoft was unable to comment on the technique used. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denies believing that Microsoft was a key avenue of fresh infection. Both Microsoft and the DHS have agreed to investigate the multiple ways of entry that were used by the hackers.
The biggest hack to date
DHS confirmed the hackers taking the help of other techniques rather than corrupting updates of network management software by SolarWinds. It is widely known that SolarWinds is used by a wide range of companies and government agencies.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed the utilization of other methods by attackers. As of now, it is known that the attackers used the least monitored email or other data within the U.S. departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Homeland Security, and Commerce. CISA has stated the attackers might have set up additional ways of upholding access thus called it the biggest hack of the decade.
Security experts said, “The attackers are very careful and have deleted logs, or electronic footprints or which files they have accessed.” Some major companies have been said to have found “no evidence” of getting hacked. This might because the evidence was removed.
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