Microsoft probes clue that hackers cracked Taiwan research

Microsoft has focused part of its investigation on understanding if Devcore may have been compromised, or in some way tipped off attackers that the patch was in the pipeline, valuable intelligence for hackers seeking to time their attack to maximise its impact, according to sources. — Reuters

Microsoft Corp is investigating whether hackers who attacked its email system exploited the findings of Taiwanese researchers who were the first to alert the software company to the vulnerabilities, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Devcore, a small firm based in Taipei City that specialises in discovering computer security flaws, in December said it found bugs affecting Microsoft’s widely used Exchange business email software. Then in late February, Microsoft notified Devcore that it was close to releasing security patches to fix the problem.