China's Cyber Attack Becomes A Storm Of Criticism Against Microsoft

The US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, has become one of the victims of cyber attacks. (photo: x @SecRaidono)

JAKARTA - The US Cyber Security Review Board on Tuesday, April 2, stated that the cyberattack targeted by China against senior government officials' emails last year could actually be prevented. Microsoft, the tech giant, was blamed for its cybersecurity failures and intentional lack of transparency.

In its report, the board identified a series of decisions taken by Microsoft that had reduced the company's security, risk management, and trust from customers to protect their data and operations.

The intrusion, derived from the corporate account compromise of a Microsoft engineer, was carried out by Storm-0558, a hacker group affiliated with the People's Republic of China.

"Although no organization is immune from cyberattacks from enemies who have good resources, we have mobilized our engineering team to identify and reduce old infrastructure, improve processes, and enforce security standards," Microsoft said.

Our security infrastructure continues to strengthen all of our systems against attacks and implement stronger sensors and logs to help us detect and ward off attacks from our enemy cyber soldiers. We will also review the final report for additional recommendations," Microsoft added.

The board recommends Microsoft to develop and create security-focused reforms in all its products.

Last year, the tech giant said that the intrusion of senior officials in the US Department of State and Commerce was carried out by Storm-0558, which allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of emails from top American officials including Trade Secretary Gina Raimondo, US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, and Assistant State Secretary to East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink.