Microsoft believes malware used to infect PCs running its Windows operating system was created by an Israeli organisation.

Microsoft is taking a new effort to reduce internet security issues.

The company has also been looking for government-backed hackers, such as the Chinese organisation Hafnium, which it believes is responsible for attacks on its Exchange Server email software.&nbsp;

The problem was only recently rectified by Microsoft, and it took them a long time to resolve, with several people claiming that it was ineffective for their experience.

The threat actors were revealed to be from the private sector, and the company launched an inquiry to learn more about their genuine motives.&nbsp;

Microsoft's investigation into their latest breach and zero-day vulnerability came from an Israeli private sector business called "Sourgum," according to the company's blog post. 
 
Watch: India rolls out new education policy, teams up with Microsoft

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The company in question is a PSOA, or private sector offensive actor, intending to sell "cyberweapons" to its clients to hack them.&nbsp;

Another group discovered in the investigation is known as "Candiru," and they have been related to Sourgum with regards to the recent Microsoft attack.

While the motives of Candiru are unknown, it poses a direct threat to Microsoft and would be subject to an inquiry in the hopes of apprehending the perpetrator.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Microsoft believes malware used to infect PCs running its Windows operating system was created by an Israeli organisation. Microsoft is taking a new effort to reduce internet security issues.

Microsoft believes malware used to infect PCs running its Windows operating system was created by an Israeli organisation. Microsoft is taking a new effort to reduce internet security issues. The company has also been looking for government-backed hackers, such as the Chinese organisation Hafnium, which it believes is responsible for attacks on its Exchange Server email software. The problem was only recently rectified by Microsoft, and it took them a long time to resolve, with several people claiming that it was ineffective for their experience. The threat actors were revealed to be from the private sector, and the company launched an inquiry to learn more about their genuine motives. Microsoft's investigation into their latest breach and zero-day vulnerability came from an Israeli private sector business called "Sourgum," according to the company's blog post. Watch: India rolls out new education policy, teams up with Microsoft The company in question is a PSOA, or private sector offensive actor, intending to sell "cyberweapons" to its clients to hack them. Another group discovered in the investigation is known as "Candiru," and they have been related to Sourgum with regards to the recent Microsoft attack. While the motives of Candiru are unknown, it poses a direct threat to Microsoft and would be subject to an inquiry in the hopes of apprehending the perpetrator. (With inputs from agencies)

Israeli company is behind malware that affected Windows PCs: Microsoft

Microsoft said on Friday an attacker had won access to one of its customer-service agents and then used information from that to launch hacking attempts against customers. 
 
The company said it had found the compromise during its response to hacks by a team it identifies as responsible for earlier major breaches at SolarWinds and Microsoft. 
 
Microsoft said it had warned the affected customers. A copy of one warning seen by Reuters said the attacker belonged to the group Microsoft calls Nobelium and that it had access during the second half of May. 
 
"A sophisticated Nation-State associated actor that Microsoft identifies as NOBELLIUM accessed Microsoft customer support tools to review information regarding your Microsoft Services subscriptions," the warning reads in part. The US&nbsp;government has publicly attributed the earlier attacks to the Russian government, which denies involvement. 
 
When Reuters asked about that warning, Microsoft announced the breach publicly. 
 
After commenting on a broader phishing campaign it said had compromised a small number of entities, Microsoft said it had also found the breach of its own agent, who it said had limited powers. 
 
The agent could see billing contact information and what services the customers pay for, among other things. 
 
"The actor used this information in some cases to launch highly-targeted attacks as part of their broader campaign," Microsoft said. 
 
Microsoft warned affected customers to be careful about communications to their billing contacts and consider changing those usernames and email addresses, as well as barring old usernames from logging in. 
 
Microsoft said it was aware of three entities that had been compromised in the phishing campaign. 
 
It did not immediately clarify whether any had been among those whose data was viewed through the support agent, or if the agent had been tricked by the broader campaign. 
 
Microsoft did not say whether the agent was at a contractor or a direct employee. 
 
A spokesman said the latest breach by the threat actor was not part of Nobelium`s previous successful attack on Microsoft, in which it obtained some source code. 
 
In the SolarWinds attack, the group altered code at that company to access SolarWinds customers, including nine U.S. federal agencies. 
 
At the SolarWinds customers and others, the attackers also took advantage of weaknesses in the way Microsoft programs were configured, according to the Department of Homeland Security. 
 
Microsoft later said the group had compromised its own employee accounts and taken software instructions governing how Microsoft verifies user identities. 
 
A White House official said the latest intrusion and phishing campaign was far less serious than the SolarWinds fiasco. 
 
"This appears to be largely unsuccessful, run-of-the-mill espionage," the official said. 
 
Scott McConnell, a spokesman for Homeland Security`s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the defensive group “is working with Microsoft and our interagency partners to evaluate the impact. We stand ready to assist any affected entities.” 
 
A SolarWinds spokesperson said, "The latest cyberattack reported by Microsoft does not involve our company or our customers in any way."

Microsoft said on Friday an attacker had won access to one of its customer-service agents and then used information from that to launch hacking attempts against customers.

Microsoft said on Friday an attacker had won access to one of its customer-service agents and then used information from that to launch hacking attempts against customers. The company said it had found the compromise during its response to hacks by a team it identifies as responsible for earlier major breaches at SolarWinds and Microsoft. Microsoft said it had warned the affected customers. A copy of one warning seen by Reuters said the attacker belonged to the group Microsoft calls Nobelium and that it had access during the second half of May. "A sophisticated Nation-State associated actor that Microsoft identifies as NOBELLIUM accessed Microsoft customer support tools to review information regarding your Microsoft Services subscriptions," the warning reads in part. The US government has publicly attributed the earlier attacks to the Russian government, which denies involvement. When Reuters asked about that warning, Microsoft announced the breach publicly. After commenting on a broader phishing campaign it said had compromised a small number of entities, Microsoft said it had also found the breach of its own agent, who it said had limited powers. The agent could see billing contact information and what services the customers pay for, among other things. "The actor used this information in some cases to launch highly-targeted attacks as part of their broader campaign," Microsoft said. Microsoft warned affected customers to be careful about communications to their billing contacts and consider changing those usernames and email addresses, as well as barring old usernames from logging in. Microsoft said it was aware of three entities that had been compromised in the phishing campaign. It did not immediately clarify whether any had been among those whose data was viewed through the support agent, or if the agent had been tricked by the broader campaign. Microsoft did not say whether the agent was at a contractor or a direct employee. A spokesman said the latest breach by the threat actor was not part of Nobelium`s previous successful attack on Microsoft, in which it obtained some source code. In the SolarWinds attack, the group altered code at that company to access SolarWinds customers, including nine U.S. federal agencies. At the SolarWinds customers and others, the attackers also took advantage of weaknesses in the way Microsoft programs were configured, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Microsoft later said the group had compromised its own employee accounts and taken software instructions governing how Microsoft verifies user identities. A White House official said the latest intrusion and phishing campaign was far less serious than the SolarWinds fiasco. "This appears to be largely unsuccessful, run-of-the-mill espionage," the official said. Scott McConnell, a spokesman for Homeland Security`s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the defensive group “is working with Microsoft and our interagency partners to evaluate the impact. We stand ready to assist any affected entities.” A SolarWinds spokesperson said, "The latest cyberattack reported by Microsoft does not involve our company or our customers in any way."

Microsoft says new breach discovered in probe of suspected SolarWinds hackers

A Chinese hacker group called&nbsp;APT41 has been&nbsp;charged by the US Justice Department after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Microsoft caught two of the hackers in a combined effort.&nbsp;

APT41 is a group of seven hackers, out of which five of them are Chinese nationals and are expert hackers. Majority of the group members have been employees of&nbsp;Chengdu 404 Network Technology — a company that provides legal hacking services to the company to help&nbsp;detect vulnerabilities in clients' computer networks. The other company involved in the case is&nbsp;SEA Gamer Mall, a Malaysia-based firm that sells video game currency, power-ups and other in-game items.

They trapped various groups — from gaming companies to non-profit organisations — by several sophisticated and basic phishing methods. While some companies got duped through phishing emails, rest gave permission to the group to modify their codes, which provided them free and unlimited access to clients' computers and internal data.

The group has been alleged of hacking hundreds of computers of various companies around the world. The hackers accessed identities, personal information and used the hacked information to ask for ransom and commit&nbsp;cryptocurrency/bitcoin frauds. They also hacked into systems of gaming companies through which they used the data to sell game items back to the customers and dupe them of money.

They have&nbsp;also been alleged of compromising government&nbsp;data in Vietnam and India.&nbsp;

Whether or not the group was working for the Chinese government is not yet clear. The court has alleged that the hackers collected information regarding pro-democracy activists of Hong Kong and&nbsp;a Buddhist monk from Tibet. One of the hackers,&nbsp;Jiang Lizhi, has a history of working with&nbsp;China's Ministry of State Security.

However, none of these allegations have successfully proved a connection between the hacker group and the Chinese government. More investigation is being carried out for this.

Out of seven, two members have been caught. However, these two were businessmen in Malaysia, and the hackers are still at large. The two businessmen were caught in a&nbsp;sweeping operation by the FBI and private companies including Microsoft to block the hackers from using their online accounts.

The US is currently seeking permission to extradite the hacker groups, which is seemingly difficult as none of the members have lived in the US, but have committed frauds in the country.

A Chinese hacker group called APT41 has been charged by the US Justice Department after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Microsoft caught two of the hackers in a combined effort.

A Chinese hacker group called APT41 has been charged by the US Justice Department after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Microsoft caught two of the hackers in a combined effort. APT41 is a group of seven hackers, out of which five of them are Chinese nationals and are expert hackers. Majority of the group members have been employees of Chengdu 404 Network Technology — a company that provides legal hacking services to the company to help detect vulnerabilities in clients' computer networks. The other company involved in the case is SEA Gamer Mall, a Malaysia-based firm that sells video game currency, power-ups and other in-game items. They trapped various groups — from gaming companies to non-profit organisations — by several sophisticated and basic phishing methods. While some companies got duped through phishing emails, rest gave permission to the group to modify their codes, which provided them free and unlimited access to clients' computers and internal data. The group has been alleged of hacking hundreds of computers of various companies around the world. The hackers accessed identities, personal information and used the hacked information to ask for ransom and commit cryptocurrency/bitcoin frauds. They also hacked into systems of gaming companies through which they used the data to sell game items back to the customers and dupe them of money. They have also been alleged of compromising government data in Vietnam and India. Whether or not the group was working for the Chinese government is not yet clear. The court has alleged that the hackers collected information regarding pro-democracy activists of Hong Kong and a Buddhist monk from Tibet. One of the hackers, Jiang Lizhi, has a history of working with China's Ministry of State Security. However, none of these allegations have successfully proved a connection between the hacker group and the Chinese government. More investigation is being carried out for this. Out of seven, two members have been caught. However, these two were businessmen in Malaysia, and the hackers are still at large. The two businessmen were caught in a sweeping operation by the FBI and private companies including Microsoft to block the hackers from using their online accounts. The US is currently seeking permission to extradite the hacker groups, which is seemingly difficult as none of the members have lived in the US, but have committed frauds in the country.

Chinese hacker group, APT41, dupe companies in Malaysia and China

One of Netflix Inc&#39;s Twitter accounts was hacked on Wednesday by an entity calling itself &quot;OurMine&quot;.

Several mocking tweets were sent from the Netflix US Twitter account (@netflix).&nbsp;

&quot;World security is shit. We are here to prove this :),&quot; said one tweet. Some of the tweets were deleted in less than 10 minutes.

Netflix could not be immediately reached for comment.

However, the company&#39;s verified customer support twitter handle tweeted: &quot;We&#39;re aware of the situation and are working to get it resolved.&quot;&nbsp;

OurMine is well known for breaking into high-profile social media accounts, including those of Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook Inc&#39;s Mark Zuckerberg and media outlets Forbes and TechCrunch.

Contacted by Reuters through email, OurMine said it had taken control Netflix&#39;s Twitter account three hours earlier.

(Reuters)

Hacking entity 'OurMine' put up several mocking tweets to illustrate how fallible world security is

One of Netflix Inc's Twitter accounts was hacked on Wednesday by an entity calling itself "OurMine". Several mocking tweets were sent from the Netflix US Twitter account (@netflix). "World security is shit. We are here to prove this :)," said one tweet. Some of the tweets were deleted in less than 10 minutes. Netflix could not be immediately reached for comment. However, the company's verified customer support twitter handle tweeted: "We're aware of the situation and are working to get it resolved." OurMine is well known for breaking into high-profile social media accounts, including those of Twitter Inc CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook Inc's Mark Zuckerberg and media outlets Forbes and TechCrunch. Contacted by Reuters through email, OurMine said it had taken control Netflix's Twitter account three hours earlier. (Reuters)

Netflix's Twitter account breached by notorious hackers

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