An unnamed Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agency in the U.S. detected anomalous email activity in mid-June 2023, leading to Microsoft’s discovery of a new China-linked espionage campaign targeting two dozen organizations.
The details come from a joint cybersecurity advisory released by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on July 12, 2023.
“In June 2023, a Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agency identified suspicious activity in their Microsoft 365 (M365) cloud environment,” the authorities said. “Microsoft determined that advanced persistent threat (APT) actors accessed and exfiltrated unclassified Exchange Online Outlook data.”
While the name of the government agency was not revealed, CNN and the Washington Post reported it was the U.S. State Department, citing people familiar with the matter. Also targeted were the Commerce Department as well as the email accounts belonging to a congressional staffer, a U.S. human rights advocate, and U.S. think tanks. The number of affected organizations in the U.S. is estimated to be in the single digits.
images from Hacker News
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