CISA Confirms Russian-Backed Hackers Behind Cyber Attack

Federal agencies were directed on Thursday to “immediately” address a cyber threat by Russian-linked hackers targeting Microsoft corporate email accounts. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an emergency directive mandating urgent steps for federal agencies to mitigate the risk posed by the hacker group. Specifically, the directive applies to federal civilian executive branch agencies (FCEB) targeted by Midnight Blizzard, a Russian state-sponsored actor that accessed Microsoft corporate email accounts. The group is also known as Nobelium, the same Russian hacking team behind the SolarWinds breach. CISA’s Thursday directive told federal agencies to take “steps to identify the full content of the agency correspondence with compromised Microsoft accounts and perform a cybersecurity impact analysis.”...