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Microsoft has acknowledged that the hackers behind the massive cyberattack that targeted the US executive’s systems and private companies have penetrated deeper into its network than it has disclosed so far, reports AFP.
These hackers, suspected of having ties to Russia by the US authorities, gained access to the computer code (source code), an important element of the company’s system, by hacking an employee’s account, the group reported in a publication. blog, writes Agerpres.
attack that it was deeper than Microsoft had originally thought, it did not compromise or modify any of its programs, but the company assured.
“I detected unusual activity on some internal accounts and after verification I found out that an account was used to view the source code“Microsoft wrote on its security blog.
“The account was not allowed to change engineering code or systems, and our investigation subsequently confirmed that no changes had been made. These accounts have been reviewed and modified,” he said.
According to Microsoft, this “did not compromise the security of our services or customer data, but we want to be transparent and share what we have learned as we grapple with what we believe to be a highly sophisticated state actor.”
Microsoft had previously identified “harmful SolarWinds applications” on its systems.
The cyberattack began in March, according to US government reports, and hackers took advantage of an update to the monitoring software developed by a Texas company, SolarWinds, used by tens of thousands of companies and governments around the world.
In mid-December, the attack affected the computer systems of US government agencies, including the Department of State, Homeland Security, the Treasury, and the National Institutes of Health.
The head of the State Department, Mike Pompeo, and the Minister of Justice, Bill Barr, said that Moscow was behind the cyber attack, an opinion not shared by the president of the United States, and that Donald Trump downplayed the size of the attacks and to the supposed role of Russia.
Publisher: Georgiana Marina