Microsoft Corp. and U.S. government officials are trying to figure out how a group of suspected Chinese hackers managed to break into Microsoft’s e-mail software system, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. More than a month ago, Microsoft uncovered a cyberattack that put hundreds of thousands of Microsoft users, including small businesses, schools and several other organizations, at risk of intrusion.
The report cited people familiar with the matter as saying that a major speculation has surfaced in recent weeks: that Chinese hackers carried out the cyberattack by mining large amounts of personal information obtained in advance and using it as a basis.
One potential source of this personal data is China’s vast archives, which may contain billions of personal records stolen by its hackers over the past decade, according to the report. From them, hackers may have mined the email accounts needed to break into their targets, according to people familiar with the matter.
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser to President Joe Biden for cyber and emerging technologies, was quoted as saying, “We’re dealing with sophisticated adversaries who we know have collected large amounts of passwords and personal information in successful attack operations. They may have the ability to exploit that information on a large scale, and that’s a big concern.”
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