{"id":226450,"date":"2021-04-14T10:26:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T07:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/microsoft-defends-against-new-threat-to-exchange\/"},"modified":"2021-04-14T10:26:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T07:26:05","slug":"microsoft-defends-against-new-threat-to-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/microsoft-defends-against-new-threat-to-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"#Microsoft defends against new threat to Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Microsoft defends against new threat to Exchange<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Microsoft\"
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Microsoft on Tuesday moved to defend against a dangerous new threat to Exchange email servers while the fight continued against hackers taking advantage of a flaw patched last month.<\/p>\n

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, called on government departments to immedia<\/a>tely install the latest software update released by Microsoft.<\/p>\n

“These vulnerabilities pose an unacceptable risk to the Federal enterprise and require an immediate and emergency action,” CISA said in a notice.<\/p>\n

“This determination is based on the likelihood of the vulnerabilities being weaponized, combined with the widespread use of the affected software across the Executive Branch and high potential for a compromise of integrity and confidentiality of agency information.”<\/p>\n

Both CISA and Microsoft said it did not app<\/a>ear that hackers had taken advantage of the newly discovered weakness to break into Exchange email systems.<\/p>\n

“Although we are not aware of any active exploits in the wild, our recommendation is to install these updates immediately to protect your environment,” Microsoft said in a post about the patch.<\/p>\n

CISA and Microsoft said that the vulnerabilities were different from those fixed last month, when the US tech company disclosed that a state-sponsored hacking group operating out of China was exploiting security flaws in its Exchange email services to steal data from business users.<\/p>\n

The company said the hacking group, which it has named “Hafnium,” is a “highly skilled and sophisticated actor.”<\/p>\n

Hafnium has in the past targeted US-based companies including infectious disease researchers, law firms, universities, defense contractors, think tanks and NGOs.<\/p>\n

The potentially devastating hack is believed to have affected at least 30,000 Microsoft email servers in government and private networks and has prompted calls for a firm response to state-sponsored attacks which could involve “hacking back” or other measures.<\/p>\n

Microsoft in March released updates to fix the security flaws, which apply to on-premises versions of the software rather than cloud-based versions, and urged customers to apply them.<\/p>\n

US Justice Department officials on Tuesday announced that, with backing from a court, they purged “malicious web shells” hackers had planted in hundreds of computers running Exchange Server software.<\/p>\n

Web shells are bits of computer code that allow hackers to reach into computers remotely, and had been planted early this year by taking advantage of a weakness in Exchange, according to a Justice Department release.<\/p>\n

“Today’s operation removed one early hacking group’s remaining web shells, which could have been used to maintain and escalate persistent, unauthorized access to US networks,” Justice Department officials said.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Microsoft: China-based hackers found bug to target US firms\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Microsoft defends against new threat to Exchange (2021, April 14)
\n retrieved 14 April 2021
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news<\/a>\/2021-04-microsoft-defends-threat-exchange.html<\/p>\n

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