By Around 25 organizations and government agencies are believed to be affected by the breach. | Illustration: Beatrice Sala
In two blog posts published on Tuesday, Microsoft disclosed that a China-based hacking group — which the company refers to as “Storm-0558” — is intent on “gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection.” It said the espionage-focused group breached an unidentified number of email accounts linked to around 25 organizations, including some related individual consumer accounts and government agencies in Western Europe and the US.
According to The Washington Post, it was the US government that notified Microsoft of the exploit. “Officials immediately contacted Microsoft to find the source and vulnerability in their cloud service,” National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodges said to the publication. “We continue to hold…