Microsoft gap exposes data: Hackers spy on thousands of email servers

Hackers have apparently exploited a huge security hole at Microsoft. US media report attacks on 30,000 systems in the US alone. Among others, research on infectious diseases and companies with defense contracts were of particular interest.

According to U.S. media, tens of thousands of corporate, government and educational email servers have fallen victim to hacker attacks. A security update for the vulnerability in Microsoft's Exchange Server software has been available since last Wednesday. However, it must be installed by customers. On Friday, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) urged thousands of German companies to quickly plug the gap.

Reports differed widely on the number of people affected. There could be more than 250,000 victims worldwide, the Wall Street Journal wrote, citing an informed person. A former U.S. official familiar with the investigation told the financial service Bloomberg that at least 60,000 email servers were known to have been affected. Well-connected IT security specialist Brian Krebs and computer magazine Wired reported 30,000 hacked email systems in the U.S. alone.

"German companies are particularly affected by this Microsoft Exchange gap in an international comparison," said Rüdiger Trost of IT security firm F-Secure. "The reason: German companies fear the cloud and therefore often run services like Exchange locally."

Attack on universities and law firms

Microsoft had warned on Wednesday that the four vulnerabilities, which had not previously been made public, were being exploited by suspected Chinese hackers. The hacker group, which Microsoft calls "Hafnium," had primarily wanted to use the vulnerabilities to tap information in the United States. Among the targets were research on infectious diseases as well as universities, law firms and companies with defense contracts. The attacks were targeted and Microsoft has no indication that private customers were also attacked. However, according to the reports, unsecured systems have been attacked across the board since the vulnerabilities were disclosed.

According to Microsoft, Exchange Server versions 2013, 2016 and 2019 are affected, and Exchange is used as an email platform by many businesses, government agencies and educational institutions. In the event of a successful attack via the vulnerabilities, it is possible to tap data from the email system. Microsoft was made aware of the vulnerabilities by IT security researchers.

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