Microsoft reveals how Chinese hackers stole emails from US agencies.

Microsoft claims that Chinese hackers used a flaw in its code to steal emails from government agencies and other customers.

In a blog post published on Friday, the company reported that hackers from the Asian giant were able to take advantage of “a validation error in the code Microsoft” to carry out their cyber espionage campaign.

The blog offers the most comprehensive explanation to date of an attack that has rocked both the cybersecurity industry and US-China relations. Beijing has denied any involvement in espionage.

Wednesday night, Microsoft and US officials said state-linked Chinese hackers had secretly accessed email accounts of some 25 organizations since May. Among them, at least two government agencies.

Microsoft has not identified any of the targets of the hack, but several victims have acknowledged being affected, including staff from the State Department, the Department of Commerce and the US House of Representatives.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told China’s top diplomat Wang Yi at a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday that any action directed against the US government, companies or citizens of that country concerns them “deeply”

“We will take appropriate steps to hold those responsible accountable”, he added, according to a high-ranking official of the Department of State.

Microsoft’s own security practices have come under scrutiny, and officials and lawmakers have called on the Redmond, Washington company to make its top-level digital audit trail, also called a registry, freely available to all its customers.

Source: Reuters