An alert on a suspected attack by state-backed Chinese hackers from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastru

The U.S. Has Formally Accused China Of A Massive Cyberattack On Microsoft

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2021-07-20 03:30:04

An alert on a suspected attack by state-backed Chinese hackers from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in April. Jon Elswick/AP hide caption

An alert on a suspected attack by state-backed Chinese hackers from the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in April.

The White House is publicly blaming China for an attack on Microsoft's Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers worldwide, allowing hackers to gain access to troves of sensitive data.

Separately, the Department of Justice announced Monday that a federal grand jury in May had indicted Chinese nationals accused of working with official sanction from Beijing to break into computer systems belonging to U.S. companies, universities and governments.

The cyberattack on Microsoft, which is believed to have begun in January, reportedly injected computers with malware that secretly monitored systems belonging to small businesses, local and state governments and some military contractors.