Microsoft discovered no proof of access to consumer data, but the hackers had the ability to view areas of the software application giant’s source code.
Microsoft (MSFT) – Get Report stated in a post-Thursday that the hackers in the SolarWinds attack previously this month were able to view the company’s source code.
The Redmond, Washington-based business stated it found no proof hackers had accessed production services or consumer data, nor that they had used Microsoft’s systems to attack others. But an examination did reveal a lone internal account that was used to view source code “in a variety of source code repositories.”
“We think the Solorigate incident is a chance to interact in important methods, to share info, enhance defenses and react to attacks,” the company stated in Thursday’s post. Microsoft added that it thinks the intruders represented a “really advanced nation-state star.”
Microsoft initially reported in mid-Dec. that it had detected malicious SolarWinds applications in its systems, which the company isolated and gotten rid of. On Thursday, it stated that the sole account that was used to see source code had been ” investigated and remediated.”
Between March and June, hackers thought to be connected to Russia’s foreign intelligence service (SVR) placed malware in software application updates for the IT software producer SolarWinds’ Orion IT infrastructure management software application.
That hack resulted in security breaches at the Treasury Department, the National Telecommunications and Details Administration, the Department of Homeland, and a variety of SolarWinds’ business clients, such as Microsoft.
“To put it candidly, based upon all the initial data and talking to our Beltway contacts, our company believe this cyber attack will likely rank as one of the worst in the last years, given the targeted and cyber espionage nature of this attack,” wrote Wedbush expert Dan Ives in a note published following the attack.
Ives included that “this breach might not have come at a worse time, with almost all federal government agencies along with enterprises having employees work from home likely up until a minimum of mid-2021 and accessing applications/data from ubiquitous endpoints globally.”
Microsoft shares were down 0.11% to $221.45 per share on Thursday afternoon but were off their lows throughout the final trading session of the year.
