Microsoft Source code breach

Microsoft has now acknowledged that Russian hackers, identified as Midnight Blizzard, Cozy Bear and APT29, infiltrated its top executives' emails, stealing source code and penetrating its internal networks.

Microsoft Office Suite was one of most attacked software, but that was on the customer facing side and most of the attacks were localized and didn’t raise any doubts on the cyber security stance of the company and did not impact it’s growth trajectory. This company is valued in the range of $3 trillion today.

Microsoft has been trying to bolster its software security in the wake of severe Azure cloud breaches. Attacks of this nature throw doubts on cloud security as it is the second most valued company globally. It has also seen compromise of 30,000 organizations' email servers due to a flaw in Microsoft Exchange Server.

Another embarrassing breach for the company was when Chinese hackers breached US government mails via Microsoft cloud exploit. As if all this was not enough now, we have a security breach incident headline stating, Microsoft discloses source code theft by Russian hackers.

Microsoft actively investigates the extent of the damage and compromised information. Focus remains on improving security measures to prevent similar attacks in the future. The company likely communicates with affected individuals and organizations.

Source code is the ultimate software asset, and it is the most valued for any company. Microsoft has seen evidence that Midnight Blizzard has used earlier infiltrated information to gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access. Beyond email infiltration by this breach the hacker gained access to certain source code repositories and internal systems.

Microsoft has ramped up its security measures and investments. Vigilance across the enterprise has been increased. The aim is to have enhanced ability to defend the enterprise. To reach this goal the exercise which is to secure and harden the software / systems environment, against any advanced persistent threat of this nature. It is a testing time for the company for sure.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA