Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) each just lately disclosed that they suffered company electronic mail breaches by the hands of Russia’s “Midnight Blizzard” hackers.
The group, which is tied to the Kremlin’s SVR international intelligence, is particularly linked to SVR’s APT 29 Cozy Bear, the gang that meddled in the US 2016 presidential election, has carried out aggressive authorities and company espionage all over the world for years, and was behind the notorious 2021 SolarWinds provide chain assault. Whereas each HP’s and Microsoft’s breaches got here to mild inside days of one another, the scenario primarily illustrates the continued actuality of Midnight Blizzard’s worldwide espionage actions and the lengths it should go to to seek out weaknesses in organizations’ digital defenses.
“We should not be stunned that Russian intelligence-backed menace actors, and SVR particularly, are focusing on tech corporations like Microsoft and HPE. With organizations that measurement, it will be a a lot greater shock to be taught they weren’t,” says Jake Williams, a former US Nationwide Safety Company hacker and present school member on the Institute for Utilized Community Safety.
HP Enterprise mentioned in a US Securities and Trade Fee submission posted on Wednesday that Midnight Blizzard gained entry to its “cloud-based electronic mail setting” final yr. The corporate first realized concerning the scenario on December 12, 2023, however mentioned that the assault started in Might 2023. Hackers “accessed and exfiltrated knowledge … from a small share of HPE mailboxes belonging to people in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, enterprise segments, and different features,” the corporate wrote within the SEC submitting. HP Enterprise mentioned the breach seemingly happened as the results of one other incident, found in June 2023, by which Midnight Blizzard additionally accessed and exfiltrated firm “SharePoint” recordsdata starting as early as Might 2023. SharePoint is a much-targeted cloud collaboration platform made by Microsoft that integrates with Microsoft 365.
“The accessed knowledge is restricted to data contained within the HPE customers’ electronic mail bins,” HP Enterprise spokesperson Adam Bauer instructed WIRED in an announcement. “We proceed to research and analyze these mailboxes to establish data that would have been accessed and can make acceptable notifications as required.”
In the meantime, Microsoft mentioned on Friday that it detected a system intrusion on January 12 tied to a November 2023 breach. The attackers focused and compromised some historic Microsoft system take a look at accounts that then allowed them to entry “a really small share of Microsoft company electronic mail accounts, together with members of our senior management crew and staff in our cybersecurity, authorized, and different features.” From there the group was capable of exfiltrate “some emails and hooked up paperwork.” Microsoft famous in its disclosure that the attackers gave the impression to be in search of details about Microsoft’s investigations and information of Midnight Blizzard itself.
“The assault was not the results of a vulnerability in Microsoft services or products. So far, there isn’t a proof that the menace actor had any entry to buyer environments, manufacturing programs, supply code, or AI programs,” the corporate wrote in its disclosure. “This assault does spotlight the continued danger posed to all organizations from well-resourced nation-state menace actors like Midnight Blizzard.”
