Hackers in China have been abusing some flaws in Microsoft’s Exchange software to break into accounts and view emails without authorization and to install unlawful software, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sources told the newspaper that tens of thousands of customers all over the world could be affected, and that figure could be higher than 250,000.
Microsoft explained that the attack was probably carried out by a network of Chinese hackers. The hacks are proceeding despite emergency patches made by the company last week, Reuters reported.
Microsoft had initially announced the hacks consisted of “limited and targeted attacks.” The company refused to comment on Friday, explaining that it was working with government agencies and security organizations to serve its customers affected by the hack.
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It added, “impacted customers should contact our support teams for additional help and resources.”
The problems are with the Web version of Outlook for people hosting them on their own machines and not on the cloud, Reuters reported. This probably spared bigger firms and federal government agencies, the records suggest.
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As of Friday, nearly 10 percent of connected devices vulnerable to the hack had installed the patches, yet the number was going up.
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Earlier on Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the vulnerabilities discovered in Microsoft’s widely used Exchange servers were “significant,” and “could have far-reaching impacts.”
“We’re concerned that there are a large number of victims,” Psaki announced.
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Microsoft and the person working with the U.S. response blamed the first wave of strikes on a Chinese government-backed actor. A Chinese government spokesman announced the country was not behind the intrusions.
What started as a controlled attack late last year against a few classic surveillance targets arose last month to a widespread campaign. Security officials stated that unless China had switched tactics, a second group may have become involved.
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The hackers have only used the flaws to re-enter and move around the infected networks in a modest portion of cases, probably less than 1 in 10, the person working with the government said.
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“A couple hundred guys are exploiting them as fast as they can,” stealing data and installing other ways to return later, he said.
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The initial avenue of attack was found by prominent Taiwanese cyber researcher Cheng-Da Tsai, who explained that he reported the flaw to Microsoft in January. He wrote in a blog post that he was investigating whether the information leaked.
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