Hackers attacked the servers of the Microsoft Exchange European Banking Authority (EBA). Due to the attack, EBA had to temporarily shut down its mail systems as a precaution.
EBA launched an investigation of the incident in partnership with its information and communications technology provider, a group of information security experts and other relevant organizations.
The EBA also said the experts secured the email infrastructure and found no evidence of data theft.
This incident is a consequence of an ongoing large-scale campaign to exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange mail servers.
We will remind that last week Microsoft released emergency security updates for its mail server Exchange, fixing four zero-day vulnerabilities, which are actively used by Chinese hackers.
According to experts, attacks using vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange could affect more than 60 thousand organizations around the world. Regarding this, the Bloomberg publication predicts a new global cybersecurity crisis.
According to a former senior U.S. official familiar with the investigation, the attack began with a hacker group backed by the Chinese government.
Initially, Chinese hackers appeared to be targeting important intelligence aims in the United States. About a week ago, everything changed. Other hacker groups began hitting thousands of victims in a short period of time by introducing hidden software that could give them access to companies’ mail.
Either way, the attacks were so successful – and so quick – that hackers seem to have found a way to automate the process.
