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Microsoft: We Were Hacked Too

Days after Apple and Facebook acknowledged that hack attacks had breached their defenses, Microsoft has acknowledged that a similar cyberattack also compromised some of its systems. However, the company says no customer data was stolen. All Things D’s Mike Isaac reported, “On Friday evening, Microsoft announced via its security blog that it, too, had been […]

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Cynthia Harvey

Feb 25, 2013

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Days after Apple and Facebook acknowledged that hack attacks had breached their defenses, Microsoft has acknowledged that a similar cyberattack also compromised some of its systems. However, the company says no customer data was stolen.

All Things D’s Mike Isaac reported, “On Friday evening, Microsoft announced via its security blog that it, too, had been the victim of a cyber attack, comparing its situation to the likes of Facebook’s and Apple’s recent security breaches. ‘During our investigation, we found a small number of computers, including some in our Mac business unit, that were infected by malicious software using techniques similar to those documented by other organizations,’ wrote Matt Thomlinson, General Manager of Trustworthy Computing Security, in a company post.”

CIO also quoted the Microsoft blog, which said, “We have no evidence of customer data being affected and our investigation is ongoing.”

Reuters noted, “The attacks come at a time of broader concern about computer security. Newspaper websites, including those of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, have been infiltrated recently. Earlier this month U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order seeking better protection of the country’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.”

The same day that Microsoft acknowledged the attacks, it also reported some other bad news. TechWorld’s John Ribeiro observed, “Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform faced a worldwide outage in its storage services from Friday afternoon because of an expired SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate. The company also reported problems with its Xbox Music and Video Store services.”