We reported on this last January Microsoft has become the victim of a cyber attack of Russian origin. The company explained via the Response Center Blog that its security team detected the attack on January 12 and that its initial investigation concluded that the author was Midnight blizzardadvanced persistent threat (APT), which was behind the 2020 cyberattack against SolarWinds and is sponsored by the Russian state.

The cyber attack focused on data leakage and unauthorized access to the company’s secret or confidential information. After discovering the attack on January 12, Microsoft’s security team realized on January 19 that the attack was targeting the company’s email services and therefore immediately activated its measures.

Midnight Blizzard’s intention to obtain important data from Microsoft it was not limited to email, as the unauthorized access attempts also involved “some of the company’s source code repositories and internal systems”.. To date, we have found no evidence that Microsoft-hosted customer support systems have been compromised.”

Microsoft explains that “Midnight Blizzard tries to use the secrets of the different types he found. Some of these secrets were shared between customers and Microsoft via email and as discovered in our leaked email, we are reaching out to these customers to help them take mitigation measures.”

The tone and timing used in the last post published on the Security Response Center blog makes this clear The Midnight Blizzard attack still continues and its basis is primarily the use of leaked data from Microsoft systems, so new findings or even a turn of events should not be ruled out.

The Redmond giant says that Midnight Blizzard’s attack “features a significant and sustained commitment of resources, coordination and focus.” You may be using the information you have gained to build a picture of areas that can be attacked and improve your ability to do so. “This reflects what has become an unprecedented global threat, particularly in terms of sophisticated attacks against nation states.”

How could it be otherwise Microsoft has increased resources in security, coordination and mobilization across companieswhich covers its defense systems and the implementation of improved control, detection and monitoring measures.

In addition to Microsoft’s ongoing investigation into the Midnight Blizzard attack, it remains to be seen whether this will increase tensions between the United States and Russia, especially since the ATP is sponsored by the government led by Vladimir Putin. The current political context, based on confrontation and polarization on many levels, does not encourage us to be particularly optimistic in the event of a clash between the two countries.