SolarWinds hacking campaign puts Microsoft in the hot seat

The SolarWinds hackers took full advantage of what Kurtz called 'systematic weaknesses' in key elements of Microsoft code to mine at least nine US government agencies and more than 100 private companies and think tanks, including software and telecommunications providers. — AFP

BOSTON: The sprawling hacking campaign deemed a grave threat to US national security came to be known as SolarWinds, for the company whose software update was seeded by Russian intelligence agents with malware to penetrate sensitive government and private networks.

Yet it was Microsoft whose code the cyber spies persistently abused in the campaign’s second stage, rifling through emails and other files of such high-value targets as then-acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf – and hopping undetected among victim networks.