Microsoft says China-linked hackers accessed government emails
Hackers linked to China have accessed email accounts of Western government agencies and organisations in a cyberespionage campaign, Microsoft has said.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan appeared to confirm the allegations on Wednesday, saying that the United States had detected a breach of federal government accounts “fairly rapidly” and is investigating the matter.
But China rejected the accusations, calling the US the “world’s biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief”.
“It is high time that the US explained its cyberattack activities and stopped spreading disinformation to deflect public attention,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters on Wednesday.
Microsoft had said early on Wednesday that the hacking group, dubbed Storm-0558, forged digital authentication tokens to access webmail accounts running on its Outlook service. The activity began in May.
“As with any observed nation-state actor activity, Microsoft has contacted all targeted or compromised organizations directly via their tenant admins and provided them with important information to help them investigate and respond,” the company said in a statement.
Source: Al Jazeera