Microsoft: Russian state hackers had access to managers’ email accounts

Microsoft reports that Russian hacker group Nobelium recently accessed email accounts of company executives and staff. The hackers allegedly captured emails and attachments, but reportedly had no access to customer or product data.

Microsoft writes that the hack started at the end of November and was discovered on January 12. The American company says that the hackers used a password spray attack. This is a cyber attack in which commonly used passwords are tested on different accounts in the hope of gaining access to some of those accounts without activating the account lock.

The hackers allegedly gained access to an old test account within the company and, thanks to the permissions of that account, they also managed to obtain e-mail messages and attachments from employees and some high-ranking managers. Internal investigations reportedly show that the attackers were looking for information about themselves.

According to Microsoft, these are hackers from Midnight Blizzard. Also known as Nobelium, this hacking collective has been linked to the 2020 SolarWinds cyber attacks. According to the US government, at least 100 companies and nine US governments were affected by those attacks. Microsoft is currently confident that there is no vulnerability in its internal systems. The company also says no customer or product data was compromised.

Update9:35 am: replace the term ‘executives’ in the title, introduction and body text with ‘managers’.