2024-01-19 MICROSOFT CORP Cybersecurity Incident

Page last updated on July 16, 2024

MICROSOFT CORP initially disclosed a cybersecurity incident in an SEC 8-K filing on 2024-01-19 16:39:35 EST.

Incident Details

Material: Unknown
Is Breach: TRUE
Records Compromised: Unknown
Data Types Impacted: No Data Types Tracked (yet)

Compromised Date: 2023-11-27
Detected Date: 2024-01-12
Disclosure Date: 2024-01-19
Contained Date: 2024-01-13
Recovered Date:

Attack Goal: Unknown

Costs: No Costs Tracked (yet)

Filings

8-K filed on 2024-01-19

MICROSOFT CORP filed an 8-K at 2024-01-19 16:39:35 EST
Accession Number: 0001193125-24-011295

Item 1.05 Material Cybersecurity Incidents.

On January 12, 2024, Microsoft (the “Company” or “we”) detected that beginning in late November 2023, a nation-state associated threat actor had gained access to and exfiltrated information from a very small percentage of employee email accounts including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions, on the basis of preliminary analysis. We were able to remove the threat actor’s access to the email accounts on or about January 13, 2024. We are examining the information accessed to determine the impact of the incident. We also continue to investigate the extent of the incident. We have notified and are working with law enforcement. We are also notifying relevant regulatory authorities with respect to unauthorized access to personal information. As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had a material impact on the Company’s operations. The Company has not yet determined whether the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.

On January 19, 2024, the Company posted a blog regarding the incident. A copy of the blog is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this report.

Exhibit No. 99.1

Microsoft Blog Post dated January 19, 2024 titled “Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard”

Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard The Microsoft security team detected a nation-state attack on our corporate systems on January 12, 2024, and immediately activated our response process to investigate, disrupt malicious activity, mitigate the attack, and deny the threat actor further access. Microsoft has identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as Nobelium. As part of our ongoing commitment to responsible transparency as recently affirmed in our Secure Future Initiative (SFI), we are sharing this update.

Beginning in late November 2023, the threat actor used a password spray attack to compromise a legacy non-production test tenant account and gain a foothold, and then used the account’s permissions to access a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions, and exfiltrated some emails and attached documents. The investigation indicates they were initially targeting email accounts for information related to Midnight Blizzard itself. We are in the process of notifying employees whose email was accessed.

The attack was not the result of a vulnerability in Microsoft products or services. To date, there is no evidence that the threat actor had any access to customer environments, production systems, source code, or AI systems. We will notify customers if any action is required.

This attack does highlight the continued risk posed to all organizations from well-resourced nation-state threat actors like Midnight Blizzard.

As we said late last year when we announced Secure Future Initiative (SFI), given the reality of threat actors that are resourced and funded by nation states, we are shifting the balance we need to strike between security and business risk - the traditional sort of calculus is simply no longer sufficient. For Microsoft, this incident has highlighted the urgent need to move even faster. We will act immediately to apply our current security standards to Microsoft-owned legacy systems and internal business processes, even when these changes might cause disruption to existing business processes.

This will likely cause some level of disruption while we adapt to this new reality, but this is a necessary step, and only the first of several we will be taking to embrace this philosophy.

We are continuing our investigation and will take additional actions based on the outcomes of this investigation and will continue working with law enforcement and appropriate regulators. We are deeply committed to sharing more information and our learnings, so that the community can benefit from both our experience and observations about the threat actor. We will provide additional details as appropriate.

8-K/A filed on 2024-03-08

MICROSOFT CORP filed a 8-K/A at 2024-03-08 08:58:04 EST
Accession Number: 0001193125-24-062997

Explanatory Note.

Microsoft Corporation (the “Company,” “we,” or “our”) is filing this Form 8-K/A as an amendment to the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on January 19, 2024 (the “Original Filing”).

Item 1.05 Material Cybersecurity Incidents.

As disclosed in the Original Filing, the Company detected that beginning in late November 2023, a nation-state threat actor had gained access to and exfiltrated information from a very small percentage of employee email accounts including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions. Since the date of the Original Filing, the Company has determined that the threat actor used and continues to use information it obtained to gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorized access to some of the Company’s source code repositories and internal systems. The threat actor’s ongoing attack is characterized by a sustained, significant commitment of the threat actor’s resources, coordination, and focus. Our active investigations of the threat actor’s activities are ongoing, findings of our investigations will continue to evolve, and further unauthorized access may occur.

We have increased our security investments, cross-enterprise coordination and mobilization, and have enhanced our ability to defend ourselves and secure and harden our environment against this advanced persistent threat. We continue to coordinate with federal law enforcement with respect to its ongoing investigation of the threat actor and the incident.

As of the date of this filing, the incident has not had a material impact on the Company’s operations. The Company has not yet determined that the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

This Form 8-K contains forward-looking statements, which are any predictions, projections or other statements about future events based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which are described in our filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and the Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company’s expectations.

Item 7.01 Regulation FD Disclosure.

On March 8, 2024, the Company posted a blog regarding the incident. A copy of the blog is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this report. In addition, as part of our ongoing commitment to responsible transparency to our customers and other stakeholders, we may provide additional updates regarding the incident and relevant developments directly to customers or at Microsoft blogs located here: https://msrc.microsoft.com/blog/ and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/.

In accordance with General Instruction B.2 of Form 8-K, the information in this Item 7.01 and Exhibit 99.1, shall not be deemed to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or otherwise subject to the liability of that section, and shall not be incorporated by reference into any registration statement or other document filed under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, except as shall be expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

Exhibit No. 99.1

Microsoft Blog dated March 8, 2024 titled “Update on Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard”

*Update on Microsoft Actions Following Attack by Nation State Actor Midnight Blizzard

/ By MSRC / March 8, 2024 / 2 min read

This blog provides an update on the nation-state attack that was detected by the Microsoft Security Team on January 12, 2024. As we shared, on January 19, the security team detected this attack on our corporate email systems and immediately activated our response process. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence investigation identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as NOBELIUM.

As we said at that time, our investigation was ongoing, and we would provide additional details as appropriate.

In recent weeks, we have seen evidence that Midnight Blizzard is using information initially exfiltrated from our corporate email systems to gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorized access. This has included access to some of the company’s source code repositories and internal systems. To date we have found no evidence that Microsoft-hosted customer-facing systems have been compromised.

It is apparent that Midnight Blizzard is attempting to use secrets of different types it has found. Some of these secrets were shared between customers and Microsoft in email, and as we discover them in our exfiltrated email, we have been and are reaching out to these customers to assist them in taking mitigating measures. Midnight Blizzard has increased the volume of some aspects of the attack, such as password sprays, by as much as 10-fold in February, compared to the already large volume we saw in January 2024.

Midnight Blizzard’s ongoing attack is characterized by a sustained, significant commitment of the threat actor’s resources, coordination, and focus. It may be using the information it has obtained to accumulate a picture of areas to attack and enhance its ability to do so. This reflects what has become more broadly an unprecedented global threat landscape, especially in terms of sophisticated nation-state attacks.

Across Microsoft, we have increased our security investments, cross-enterprise coordination and mobilization, and have enhanced our ability to defend ourselves and secure and harden our environment against this advanced persistent threat. We have and will continue to put in place additional enhanced security controls, detections, and monitoring.

Our active investigations of Midnight Blizzard activities are ongoing, and findings of our investigations will continue to evolve. We remain committed to sharing what we learn.

Analyst Notes

• 2024-04-18 - null:

Company Information