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Microsoft was hacked in the same wave as Apple and Facebook

Microsoft has been hacked, in the same wave of attacks targeting Facebook and Apple. The company made the announcement in a blog post on its website.

You can sleep safe if you use Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 though, as Microsoft says there's no evidence of any customer data being compromised. Funnily enough, the company says some of its computers in its Mac business unit were among those hacked.

Microsoft says it didn't make a statement immediately, as first it wanted to find out what exactly happened. Only a "small number" of computers were infected by malicious software "using techniques similar to those documented by other organisations".

Last week, Apple announced it had been hit by malware that attacked Java, and a few days earlier, Facebook said it too had been targeted. Just don't tell Jeff Jarvis. Twitter was also hacked last month, with 250,000 accounts affected.

Newspapers including The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have all accused China of cyber attacks, though the origins of the hack targeting Microsoft haven't been revealed. Google's Eric Schmidt has penned a book on the subject, calling China "the world's most active and enthusiastic filterer of information", as well as the "most sophisticated and prolific hacker of foreign companies".

Microsoft acknowledged these kind of attacks are par for the course in the modern tech landscape. It said in its blog post: "This type of cyber attack is no surprise to Microsoft and other companies that must grapple with determined and persistent adversaries... We continually re-evaluate our security posture and deploy additional people, processes, and technologies as necessary to help prevent future unauthorised access to our networks."

No user data was compromised here, but are you worried about your info being nabbed? How much of your life is online? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.

Comments 3

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anonymous's avatar

anonymous 24 February, 2013 16:09

Jeff Jarvis was railing against the exact same thing this post is doing; reporting a non-story. A number of computers had malware on them via a Java exploit, and it was removed. End of story.

Damien2501's avatar

Damien2501 24 February, 2013 16:23

Something that worries me more is that most of the world's electronics are Made in China, the very country that's allegedly behind these hackings...

And I don't have any relevant information about myself online. In recent years there certainly has been a push by utility & banking companies to move online, they need to slow down and realise the risk people face from having information online.

Meleagru's avatar

Meleagru 24 February, 2013 23:32

Last year just about every large database of digital consumers was hacked. From Battle.net to Eharmony. It's a very worrying trend because there doesn't seem to be any stopping this hackers. And I don't trust any company that says that no personal information was compromised. Like they would ever admit if it had been.

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