Hack of Microsoft server hit about 100 entities: experts

A sweeping cyber espionage operation targeting Microsoft server software compromised about 100 organisations at the weekend, two of the organisations that helped uncover the campaign said on Monday.

- JAMES PEARSON RAPHAEL SATTER

Microsoft on Saturday issued an alert about “active attacks” on self-hosted SharePoint servers, which are widely used by organisations to share documents and collaborate within organisations. SharePoint instances run off of Microsoft servers were unaffected.

Dubbed a “zero-day” because it leverages a previously undisclosed digital weakness, the hacks allow spies to penetrate vulnerable servers and potentially drop a backdoor to secure continuous access to victim organisations.

Vaisha Bernard, the chief hacker at Eye Security, a Netherlands-based cybersecurity firm, which discovered the hacking campaign targetting one of its clients on Friday, said that an internet scan carried out with the Shadowserver Foundation had uncovered nearly 100 victims altogether, and that was before the technique behind the hack was widely known.

“It’s unambiguous,” Mr Bernard said. “Who knows what other adversaries have done since to place other backdoors.”