China said a Microsoft report stating that a Chinese hacker group accessed official email accounts as "disinformation" aimed to distract from US cyber operations. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson refuted the report on Wednesday.
In a Tuesday blog post, Microsoft noted that the Storm-0558 hacking gang had accessed 25 different companies' email systems, including Western European governments. The intrusion was not discovered until weeks later, when Microsoft started receiving consumer concerns about unusual behavior, per AP News.
The main goal of the adversary, Storm-0558, appears to be espionage, intending to gather information via illegal access to email systems, according to Charlie Bell, executive vice president of security at Microsoft.
Chinese Official Calls US as 'World's Largest Hacker Empire'
A statement from US authorities quoted by The Washington Post said that Storm-0558 had also compromised unclassified email accounts connected to the US government, further aggravating the problem.
The Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, responded by dismissing these accusations, saying that the matter "will never change the fact that the United States is the world's largest hacker empire, conducting the most cyber theft," according to ABC News.
Wenbin, during a regular briefing, also noted that cybersecurity groups from China and other nations have routinely published papers revealing cyberattacks by the US government against China and are still waiting for a reply.
Hacking Incident Under Investigation
According to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who is attending the NATO meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, with President Joe Biden, the hacking event is still under investigation. Sullivan assured the public that the issue was quickly discovered, preventing any more illegal access.
Sullivan committed to providing updates as the investigation progresses and confirmed that US officials would collaborate with Microsoft to gather further material.
Microsoft is collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to improve cyber defenses, as reported by Mint. Additionally, the tech business promised to keep an eye on Storm-0558's operations to thwart any potential breaches in the future.
Recent incidents have underscored cybersecurity's significance. Mandiant, a Google-owned cybersecurity firm, said last month that suspected state-backed Chinese hackers had exploited a commonly used email security tool to obtain access to many public and private sector businesses worldwide.
Microsoft had warned earlier this year that Chinese state-sponsored hackers were aggressively pursuing essential American infrastructure, perhaps laying the framework for sabotaging crucial connections between the United States and Asia during future crises.
