For the first time in the history of Microsoft, a cyberattack has left hundreds of executive accounts compromised and caused a major user data leak as Microsoft Azure was attacked.
According to Proofpoint, the hackers use the malicious techniques that were discovered in November 2023. It includes credential theft through phishing methods and cloud account takeover (CTO) which helped the hackers gain access to both Microsoft365 applications as well as OfficeHome.
every day i lose my mind a little more at how much trust hundreds of thousands of companies across the world place in third parties like microsoft to handle literally all of their sensitive data, as if that could be a good idea in any universe
While I don’t disagree it’s dangerous, most companies handling their own data would likely do a lot worse, just with smaller chance of being targeted.
That’s a fair point to be honest but it would mean more job openings for me, so… /j
Especially when history has shown that Microsoft had and has issues with security basically everywhere.
Not just companies. Governments. I know of entire governmental departments that run exclusively off of a M$ environment. People who deal with capital C Confidential information are backing it up into OneDrive. It’s lunacy.
The reason why so many people fell for this attack was because it was carried out through malicious links embedded in documents. These links led to phishing websites but the anchor text of these links was “View Document”. Naturally, no one was suspicious of a text like that.
On one hand, I know we shouldn’t blame people for falling for this stuff. People are often not educated well enough on the dangers and it’s not reasonable to expect it. We should build things to be systematically secure even in the face of people falling for phishing.
On the other hand it’s difficult not to be frustrated with this kind of thing… People really should know better than clicking random links and typing their password.
Azure products ask you for your identity and signin a lot. Honestly, I’m asked to log in again at least once every 24 hours. That’s assuming I don’t traverse some sort of service wall where I’m now in a different system after clicking a link.
I do cloud engineering for a living, and I would probably fall for at least some phishing things around Azure, specifically because azure identity management is so obtuse and constantly asking for things.
It’s absolutely on the system that Microsoft designed , and the practices they encourage, and the mitagations that apparently don’t exist.
bing bing bing bing!
“Sign into your Microsoft account” here…
“Link your Microsoft account to Edge/[Insert MS product here]”
“Let’s get you signed in” there.
“Try our Windows Hello! A new method of accessing your Microsoft account!” over there.
“Sorry you can’t use your organization account here, sign into your personal account”
This is the monster Microsoft unleashed upon itself.
Thank you. Security verification has become so cumbersome that people just try to push through without thinking.
I work on service desk.
Nobody knows their password. It’s always a fucking song and dance when I ask them to type it in.
Except of course when they click a phishing link. Then they know every single piece of information required.
Blows my mind
work on service desk.
Nobody knows their password.
If they did they wouldn’t be contacting the service desk.
I often get confused at how someone could log into the computer and yet after that is done have no idea what their password is. I sometimes have them lock their computer so they can remember it again. Facepalm.
Been on both ends of this (IT support and “forget password after entering it correctly”). The secret is muscle memory/subconcious habit.
Used to have the same issue with the dial combo lock on my locker at school. If I thought about it I could never open it. If I distracted myself just enough then I’d get it open without really knowing what I did.
That said, at my place we had someone forgetting their password literally minutes after a call to have it reset, multiple times a day. Don’t know what the issue was, but we had to escalate it to HR and the person was out for a good while.
Totally agree about the muscle memory. I recall having access to a CO DNR database at a previous job. It was one of three alphanumeric passwords assigned to me with no option to change them. I realized one day after having my hand in the wrong place on the keyboard that I didn’t really remember it, but my subconscious did
What’s sad is that my former university uses Microsoft products for literally everything and they think Duo is going to keep my uni email secure. Until they encrypt that bitch and enhance their security that email is as good as dead
Flashback from 2016 Russian hack on DNC emails
Wouldn’t blow my mind if this was a state actor, it’s a huge breach during an election year
