The Cyberattack on Microsoft: Current Affairs Special Series

Team Adda247 and BankersAdda are here with a Current Affairs Special Series. In this series, candidates will be introduced to current affairs topics daily, which will not only improve their general awareness but also will ensure that the candidates do not lack in any current affairs topic. Today’s Current Affairs topic is The Cyberattack on Microsoft.

The Cyberattack on Microsoft

The attack on email servers as a ‘pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace has been identified by U.S. officials. The Solidarity of 30 NATO allies and the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have indicated China for massive global cybercrimes. The Biden administration and Western allies accused China of hacking of Microsoft exchange email server software and blamed Beijing for working with criminal hackers in ransomware attacks and other cyber operations.

They have called attention to the ongoing threat from Chinese government hackers and the administration which is trying to curb ransomware attacks from Russia based syndicates that have targeted critical infrastructure. The Department for Justice of the US has inculpated three Chinese officials for running the hacking operation against systems around the world and looking for among other things like information on dangerous diseases like Ebola. Such information about diseases could be exploited in biological warfare or for treating diseases like Covid-19.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US and its allies have formally confirmed that China’s Ministry of state security (MSS) has used vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server in a massive cyber-spying operation that blindly compromised thousands of computers and networks mostly are from the private sector victims. He also cited the Chinese government for building an ecosystem for criminal contract hackers who are involved in both state-sponsored activities and cybercrime for their own financial gain. These hackers damage governments and businesses in billions of dollars by stealing intellectual property, ransom payments, and cybersecurity mitigation efforts. 

The European Union and Britain called out China. The EU said that mischievous cyber activities with ‘significant effects’ which have targeted government institutions, political organizations and key industries of 27 member states might be connected with Chinese hacking groups. 

According to the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre, the groups are trying to target the maritime industries and naval defence contractors in the countries like U.S. and Europe and even the Finnish Parliament (Finland).