Microsoft is warning other customers that they too have become victims of Russian espionage. Hackers with connections to the Kremlin were able to read emails between customers and Microsoft itself.

Microsoft is warning more customers that Russian hackers have read emails. Bloomberg knows this. The warning is an offshoot of an incident that Microsoft discovered in January. Then it turned out that attackers from Midnight Blizzard had gained access to accounts of senior management positions at Microsoft itself. There, the criminals were able to read the email traffic between Microsoft and its customers.

Solid track record

Midnight Blizzard, also known under the pseudonym Cozy Bear or APT29, is a hacker group linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence services. APT29 came into the spotlight after the successful hack of SolarWinds. Thanks for the Supply chainThe attack gave the hackers extensive access to the environments of up to 18,000 companies. Recently, they tried to pull off this trick again using TeamViewer.

Microsoft warned customers about the hack back in January. After thorough analysis, it now appears that APT29 had access to more correspondence than initially thought. Microsoft is providing victims with a special tool that allows them to safely view these messages and assess the potential impact for themselves.

APT29 is not a classic malware gang with the goal of causing damage. The hackers’ main goal seems to be espionage on behalf of Russia. It is not clear what the hackers were looking for this time.