Russian government-linked hacker group Midnight Blizzard stole email correspondence between several United States federal agencies by compromising Microsoft corporate email accounts, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed in an emergency directive.
The CISA instructed affected agencies "to analyze the content of exfiltrated emails, reset compromised credentials, and take additional steps to secure privileged Microsoft Azure accounts."
"For several years, the U.S. government has documented malicious cyber activity as a standard part of the Russian playbook; this latest compromise of Microsoft adds to their long list. We will continue efforts in collaboration with our federal government and private sector partners to protect and defend our systems from such threat activity," CISA Director Jen Easterly stated.
