New Delhi (NVI): At least 30,000 US organisations using Microsoft Exchange Server have been allegedly hit by “Hafnium” hacking group in China which has increased its activity, according to reports in foreign media.
Microsoft had on Wednesday said that the Chinese hacking group ‘Hafnium’ was attacking servers in the US and around the world using Microsoft Exchange Server, according to Apple Insider.
To plug four security holes affecting Exchange Server version 2013 to 2019, the US multinational company also released emergency security patches.
By Saturday, it was clear that the hacking spree was intense, wide-ranging and major in scale as it affected tens of thousands of US organisations.
The experts have claimed that despite the release of security patches, the Chinese hacking group has stepped up the attacks, in a bid to gain access to unpatched Exchange servers. The attack is said to have affected “hundreds of thousands” of servers, on a global scale.
The experts have observed that that the mass hacking is even larger than that of SolarWinds, an American company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure.
In 2020, a major cyberattack by a group backed by a foreign government penetrated thousands of organizations globally including multiple parts of the United States federal government, leading to a series of data breaches.
The US government has said that the attack was likely orchestrated by Russia, and that it breached software made by SolarWinds Corp, giving hackers access to thousands of companies and government offices that used its products. However, Russia has denied responsibility for the hacking campaign.
-ARK
