Big-Name Targets Push Midnight Blizzard Hacking Spree Back Into the Limelight

Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) each not too long ago disclosed that they suffered company e mail breaches by the hands of Russia’s “Midnight Blizzard” hackers.

The group, which is tied to the Kremlin’s SVR international intelligence, is particularly linked to SVR’s APT 29 Cozy Bear, the gang that meddled in america 2016 presidential election, has carried out aggressive authorities and company espionage around the world for years, and was behind the notorious 2021 SolarWinds supply chain attack. Whereas each HP’s and Microsoft’s breaches got here to gentle inside days of one another, the scenario primarily illustrates the continued actuality of Midnight Blizzard’s worldwide espionage actions and the lengths it should go to to seek out weaknesses in organizations’ digital defenses.

“We should not be shocked that Russian intelligence-backed risk actors, and SVR specifically, are focusing on tech firms like Microsoft and HPE. With organizations that measurement, it will be a a lot greater shock to be taught they weren’t,” says Jake Williams, a former US Nationwide Safety Company hacker and present school member on the Institute for Utilized Community Safety.

HP Enterprise stated in a US Securities and Alternate Fee submission posted on Wednesday that Midnight Blizzard gained entry to its “cloud-based e mail surroundings” final 12 months. The corporate first discovered in regards to the scenario on December 12, 2023, however stated that the assault started in Could 2023. Hackers “accessed and exfiltrated information … from a small share of HPE mailboxes belonging to people in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, enterprise segments, and different capabilities,” the corporate wrote within the SEC submitting. HP Enterprise stated the breach doubtless happened as the results of one other incident, found in June 2023, wherein Midnight Blizzard additionally accessed and exfiltrated firm “SharePoint” information starting as early as Could 2023. SharePoint is a much-targeted cloud collaboration platform made by Microsoft that integrates with Microsoft 365.

“The accessed information is proscribed to info contained within the HPE customers’ e mail bins,” HP Enterprise spokesperson Adam Bauer informed WIRED in an announcement. “We proceed to research and analyze these mailboxes to determine info that might have been accessed and can make acceptable notifications as required.”

In the meantime, Microsoft said on Friday that it detected a system intrusion on January 12 tied to a November 2023 breach. The attackers focused and compromised some historic Microsoft system check accounts that then allowed them to entry “a really small share of Microsoft company e mail accounts, together with members of our senior management staff and workers in our cybersecurity, authorized, and different capabilities.” From there the group was in a position to exfiltrate “some emails and hooked up paperwork.” Microsoft famous in its disclosure that the attackers seemed to be looking for details about Microsoft’s investigations and data of Midnight Blizzard itself.

“The assault was not the results of a vulnerability in Microsoft services or products. Thus far, there isn’t a proof that the risk actor had any entry to buyer environments, manufacturing programs, supply code, or AI programs,” the corporate wrote in its disclosure. “This assault does spotlight the continued danger posed to all organizations from well-resourced nation-state risk actors like Midnight Blizzard.”