Microsoft confirms documents were stolen in recent hacking attacks

It hasn’t been a pleasant start to 2014 so far for Microsoft: the Redmond-based company has been under attack from the Syrian Electronic Army across its email, social media and website systems. Now Microsoft has confirmed in a blog post that documents “associated with law enforcement inquiries” have been stolen as well.

It would seem that Microsoft’s announcement is designed to preempt any leaking of these documents by the SEA or other organizations that have got their hands on them. The blog post states: “Out of regard for the privacy of our employees and customers — as well as the sensitivity of law enforcement inquiries — we will not comment on the validity of any stolen emails or documents.”

As yet it doesn’t appear that any customer or user information was involved in the smash-and-grab, but Microsoft isn’t ruling it out either: “If we find that customer information related to those requests has been compromised, we will take appropriate action.”

“In terms of the cyberattack, we continue to further strengthen our security,” continues the post, penned by Adrienne Hall of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group. “This includes ongoing employee education and guidance activities, additional reviews of technologies in place to manage social media properties, and process improvements based on the findings of our internal investigation.”

To date, Microsoft’s woes at the hands of the SEA have included unauthorized blog posts, Twitter account hijacks and phishing attempts targeted at company employees. Adrienne Hall and her colleagues will be hoping for an easier ride for the rest of the year.
To date, Microsoft’s woes at the hands of the SEA have included unauthorized blog posts, Twitter account hijacks and phishing attempts targeted at company employees. Adrienne Hall and her colleagues will be hoping for an easier ride for the rest of the year.
 
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