China was using a flaw in Microsoft Cloud to launch a cyberattack on US government officials’ email accounts.
According to the New York Times, “the hack, by a Chinese group that the company said was intent on conducting espionage, went undetected for a month.”
New York Times reported:
Chinese hackers penetrated the email accounts of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other State and Commerce Department officials in the weeks before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Beijing in June, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The investigation of the efforts by the Chinese hackers, who likely are affiliated with China’s military or spy services, is ongoing, American officials said. But U.S. officials have downplayed the idea that the hackers stole sensitive information, insisting that no classified email or cloud systems were penetrated. The State Department’s cybersecurity team first discovered the intrusion.
Ms. Raimondo, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of Beijing in the administration, was among the targets, according to two U.S. officials. She has tightened export controls on China and threatened to cut off the country’s supply of U.S. semiconductor technology if it provides the chips to Russia. Ms. Raimondo is expected to visit China by the end of the summer.
Based on their preliminary investigation, officials believe she was the only cabinet-level official to be successfully hacked. The hackers were not able to acquire emails in Mr. Blinken’s Microsoft 365 account, even as they got access to other State Department email boxes, officials said.
Bill Gates praised his good pal Xi Jinping last month in China.
At Beijing’s Diaoyutai state guest house, a place reserved for high-level foreign dignitaries, Xi referred to Gates as “an old friend” and expressed optimism for future cooperation beneficial to both nations.
“You are the first American friend I’ve met in Beijing this year,” Xi Jinping said.
Apparently, Xi returned the favor by using the company Microsoft to launch a cyberattack on US government officials.
Laura Ingraham reported this disturbing discovery:
Now, despite the Fed spending, what, 15.6 billion on cybersecurity, more than the GDP of nearly, what, 75 countries, chinese cyberspies were able to exploit a fundamental gap in Microsoft’s cloud, enabling them to hack email accounts at the State Department and other agencies. But this really should come as no surprise, because Microsoft has had a really symbiotic relationship for China for years now. As Forbes noted in a recent piece, in 2014, Microsoft became the first foreign company to offer public cloud computing services in the Chinese market. And in March of this year, they would begin offering OpenAI as part of its cloud services. And get this, microsoft gave the Chinese government access to the source code for its Windows operating system. That happened back in March of 2003. But joining me now.
Via Midnight Rider:
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