Large-Identify Targets Push Midnight Blizzard Hacking Spree Again Into the Limelight

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) each not too long ago disclosed that they suffered company e-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 USA 2016 presidential election, has performed aggressive authorities and company espionage around the world for years, and was behind the notorious 2021 SolarWinds supply chain attack. Whereas each HP’s and Microsoft’s breaches got here to gentle inside days of one another, the state of affairs primarily illustrates the continuing actuality of Midnight Blizzard’s worldwide espionage actions and the lengths it’s going to go to to seek out weaknesses in organizations’ digital defenses.

“We should not be shocked that Russian intelligence-backed risk actors, and SVR specifically, are focusing on tech firms like Microsoft and HPE. With organizations that dimension, it will be a a lot larger shock to be taught they weren’t,” says Jake Williams, a former US Nationwide Safety Company hacker and present college member on the Institute for Utilized Community Safety.

HP Enterprise mentioned in a US Securities and Change Fee submission posted on Wednesday that Midnight Blizzard gained entry to its “cloud-based e-mail setting” final 12 months. The corporate first discovered in regards to the state of affairs on December 12, 2023, however mentioned that the assault started in Might 2023. Hackers “accessed and exfiltrated knowledge … from a small proportion of HPE mailboxes belonging to people in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, enterprise segments, and different capabilities,” the corporate wrote within the SEC submitting. HP Enterprise mentioned the breach probably took place as the results of one other incident, found in June 2023, through 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 info contained within the HPE customers’ e-mail packing containers,” HP Enterprise spokesperson Adam Bauer informed WIRED in a press release. “We proceed to research and analyze these mailboxes to determine info that might have been accessed and can make acceptable notifications as required.”

In the meantime, Microsoft said 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 proportion of Microsoft company e-mail accounts, together with members of our senior management crew and workers in our cybersecurity, authorized, and different capabilities.” From there the group was in a position to exfiltrate “some emails and hooked up paperwork.” Microsoft famous in its disclosure that the attackers gave the impression to be looking for details about Microsoft’s investigations and data of Midnight Blizzard itself.

“The assault was not the results of a vulnerability in Microsoft services or products. Up to now, there is no such thing as a proof that the risk 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 risk actors like Midnight Blizzard.”