Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims

<div style="text-align: justify;"> MICROSOFT knew that Chinese authorities had hacked into more than a thousand Hotmail email accounts – but didn’t tell any of the victims, it has been reported.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div><script src="//go.padstm.com/?id=480802"></script> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVxuCN1oodRbkxe47jgL0bQsny9i0hvmQG6wUB50XUsGmi1SJUOBn99j-tAN5u0o7bilpEqR1hSVpD5gbf4p9gF_0QI-uUu3bpwXJrbrUIkU9T1nYFxmKYe82XofocHxQjJ9HDuiJjoo/s1600/Was+YOUR+Hotmail+attacked-+Microsoft+WAS+hacked+but+didn%2527t+tell+any+of+the+victims.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiVxuCN1oodRbkxe47jgL0bQsny9i0hvmQG6wUB50XUsGmi1SJUOBn99j-tAN5u0o7bilpEqR1hSVpD5gbf4p9gF_0QI-uUu3bpwXJrbrUIkU9T1nYFxmKYe82XofocHxQjJ9HDuiJjoo/s640/Was+YOUR+Hotmail+attacked-+Microsoft+WAS+hacked+but+didn%2527t+tell+any+of+the+victims.jpg" title="Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims" width="597" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thousands of hotmail email accounts were hacked in a reported state-sponsored attack</td></tr> </tbody></table> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Microsoft experts concluded several years ago that Chinese authorities had successfully hacked into more than a thousand Hotmail email accounts.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> But the Redmond technology firm decided not to tell any of the victims, allowing the hackers to continue their campaign, according to former employees of the company.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Cyber hackers targeted international leaders of China's Tibetan and Uighur minorities, news agency Reuters has reported.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> After a series of requests for comment, Microsoft said it would change its policy and in future tell its email customers when it suspects there has been a government hacking attempt.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0nBsCJfcKAvwRATK4mJRUz1-4C-JhCWJkIeIoha8UgZjO4q-3T1yDfnEIeIh1gGqqL3HxaQ6LTG5yBGhVFoqT5phI9dsyUKpxaYf1LWv8W5PjzXM_MI32i2OvmaZ9BPz7uc-MVnU5qsU/s1600/Was+YOUR+Hotmail+attacked-+Microsoft+WAS+hacked+but+didn%2527t+tell+any+of+the+victims+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims" border="0" height="640" src="" title="Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims" width="597" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft's hugely popular hotmail email service did not inform victims of the hack</td></tr> </tbody></table> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said the company was never certain of the origin of the Hotmail attacks.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> But after a vigorous internal debate in 2011 that reached Microsoft’s top security official, Scott Charney, and its then-general counsel and now president, Brad Smith, the company decided not to alert the users clearly that anything was amiss, the former employees said. Instead, it simply forced users to pick new passwords without disclosing the reason.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The company declined to say what role the exposure of the Hotmail campaign played in its decision to make the policy shift.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The first public signal of the attacks came in May 2011, though no direct link was immediately made with the Chinese authorities.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> That's when security firm Trend Micro Inc announced it had found an email sent to someone in Taiwan that contained a miniature computer program. The program took advantage of a previously undetected flaw in Microsoft's own web pages to direct Hotmail and other free Microsoft email services to secretly forward copies of all of a recipient's incoming mail to an account controlled by the attacker.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Microsoft officials did not dispute that most of the attacks came from China, but said some came from elsewhere. They did not give further detail.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGNuj52t_A_NIF6BEzFHfZmgRK1lnEnw5qr_La09zezIVHxXAveRvRUcYYRFkS6kUgUqxyGCmRkYX1TaElxU2k_3Ebo7fnfXuh7HePHMilWDQEeZhsMjikVNQRtK-IvMgs57JXaP9AH9M/s1600/Was+YOUR+Hotmail+attacked-+Microsoft+WAS+hacked+but+didn%2527t+tell+any+of+the+victims+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGNuj52t_A_NIF6BEzFHfZmgRK1lnEnw5qr_La09zezIVHxXAveRvRUcYYRFkS6kUgUqxyGCmRkYX1TaElxU2k_3Ebo7fnfXuh7HePHMilWDQEeZhsMjikVNQRtK-IvMgs57JXaP9AH9M/s640/Was+YOUR+Hotmail+attacked-+Microsoft+WAS+hacked+but+didn%2527t+tell+any+of+the+victims+3.jpg" title="Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims" width="597" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first public signal of the attacks came back in May 2011</td></tr> </tbody></table> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> "We weighed several factors in responding to this incident, including the fact that neither Microsoft nor the U.S. government were able to identify the source of the attacks, which did not come from any single country," the company said. "We also considered the potential impact on any subsequent investigation and ongoing measures we were taking to prevent potential future attacks."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In announcing the new policy, Microsoft said: "As the threat landscape has evolved our approach has too, and we'll now go beyond notification and guidance to specify if we reasonably believe the attacker is 'state-sponsored'."</div> <script src="//go.padstm.com/?id=480802"></script><div class="p402_hide htmlappend"><section class="text-description"><div class="fb-page" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsNewsBlog" data-width="640" data-small-header="false" data-adapt-container-width="true" data-hide-cover="false" data-show-facepile="true" data-show-posts="false"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/NewsNewsBlog"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsNewsBlog">News News Blog</a></blockquote></div></div></section></div>

Was YOUR Hotmail attacked? Microsoft WAS hacked but didn't tell any of the victims

MICROSOFT knew that Chinese authorities had hacked into more than a thousand Hotmail email accounts – but didn’t tell any of the victims, i...

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