U.S. Formally Charges China For Hacking Microsoft

The Biden administration on Monday formally accused the Chinese government of breaching Microsoft email systems used by many of the world’s largest companies, governments and military contractors and condemned its uncivilized behavior, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger reported for the New York Times.

With the charge leveled at Beijing, Washington joins a broad group of allies, including all members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in blasting China for instigating cyberattacks around the world.

Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, is leading the Biden administration’s response to the Microsoft hacking.

The United States accused China for the first time of paying criminal groups to conduct large-scale hackings, including ransomware attacks to extort companies for millions of dollars, according to a statement from the White House.

Microsoft had pointed to hackers linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security for exploiting holes in the company’s email systems in March.

The US announcement on Monday morning (late Monday night in Manila) was the first suggestion that the Chinese government hired criminal groups to hack tens of thousands of computers and networks around the world for “significant remediation costs for its mostly private sector victims,” according to the White House.

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