Just a week after Microsoft had initially announced that its very own widely used email server program has reportedly been hacked. Experts are also reportedly not encouraged by what they have been able to find.
Red Canary cybersecurity firm comments
According to the story by NBC News, Katie Nickels, the acting director of intelligence at a certain cybersecurity firm known as Red Canary noted that in short, it has just gotten "really messy." It was noted that they were actually seeing no signs of everything slowing down.
The cybersecurity community decided to spring into action after Microsoft had initially announced a new series of vulnerabilities that would let hackers directly break into the company's very own Exchange email and calendar programs. China has reportedly used it in order to spy on a number of industries in the US. These range from medical research all the way to law firms and even up to certain defense contractors, according to the company. China has officially denied responsibility for the incident.
Microsoft's announcement attracts more hackers
Things still don't stop there, however, as Microsoft's very own announcement, in itself, has made things more complicated. With the efforts to fix all of the flaws, it seems like the move attracted more hackers to move towards exploiting the organizations that have yet to put up an updated software.
Nickels has also noted that she has seen indications from five very different hacker groups, whose identities remain unknown. The list of the victims is now growing, according to Ben Read, the current director of threat analysis over at a certain cybersecurity company known as Mandiant.
Ben Read comments
He noted that the situation is "big" saying there are above 40 incidents that they have responded to and these are just the current customers that they have. It was then noted that they are over 500 likely victims that were based on confirmation of the likely sources.
Although there is still no available official public list of the said victims, a complete tally, according to Read, puts the estimate at "definitely" within tens of thousands. It was also noted that there is definitely also a number of small and medium sized entities as well. It was noted that that is actually the customer base of Exchange.
White House National Security Council comments
A particular spokesperson coming from the White House National Security Council noted in an email statement saying that the administration is now undertaking a "whole-of-government" type of response in order to address and assess the total impact. It was also noted by the spokesperson that the situation is still an active threat developing.
While the Microsoft hack was indeed large, it seems like the situation has transformed into something bigger as even smaller companies are now being targeted by malicious hackers. Despite being cautious, since Microsoft itself was hackers, small and medium companies should also be careful since the whole scope of the attack is still currently under investigation.
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Written by Urian Buenconsejo
