Microsoft rushes to stop hackers from wreaking global havoc

HACKERS exploited a security flaw in common Microsoft software to breach governments, businesses and other organisations across the globe and steal sensitive information, according to officials and cybersecurity researchers.

- BLOOMBERG

Microsoft over the weekend released a patch for the vulnerability in servers of the SharePoint document management software. The company said it was still working to roll out other fixes after warnings that hackers were targeting SharePoint clients, using the flaw to enter file systems and execute code.

Multiple different hackers are launching attacks through the Microsoft vulnerability, according to representatives of two cybersecurity firms, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. and Google’s Mandiant Consulting.

Hackers have already used the flaw to break into the systems of national governments in Europe and the Middle East, according to a person familiar with the matter. In the US, they've accessed government systems, including ones belonging to the US Department of Education, Florida’s Department of Revenue and the Rhode Island General Assembly, said the person, who spoke on condition that they not be identified discussing the sensitive information.

Representatives of the Department of Education and Rhode Island legislature didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment Monday. A Florida Department of Revenue spokesperson, Bethany Wester Cutillo, said in an email that the SharePoint vulnerability is being investigated “at multiple levels of government” but that the state agency “does not comment publicly on the software we use for operations.”