China hackers breach email accounts of Western European government

A China-based hacking group has breached email accounts linked to government agencies in Western Europe, according to Microsoft Corp.

In a blog post published Tuesday, Microsoft said the group, which it identified as Storm-0558, commits acts such as espionage and data theft.

The group gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organisations including government agencies and to accounts of individuals linked to these organisations, and had gone undetected for about a month until customers complained to Microsoft about abnormal mail activity.

The hackers carried out the breach by forging authentication tokens — a piece of information used to verify the identity of a user — required to access the email accounts. Microsoft has since dealt with the attack and informed affected customers.

Microsoft said it is working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, among others, to guard against such attacks.

It also said it would continue to monitor Storm-0558’s activities. This attack is the latest security breach discovered to have been carried out by China-based hackers.
Last month, Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant said suspected state-backed Chinese hackers broke into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organisations globally by using a security hole in a popular email security tool.

Earlier this year, Microsoft said state-backed Chinese hackers have been targeting US critical infrastructure and could be laying the technical groundwork for the potential disruption of critical communications between the US and Asia during future crises.
China says the US also engages in cyberespionage against it, hacking into computers of its universities and companies.