Nuclear Weapons Agency Breached in Microsoft Hack

Microsoft has warned that Chinese state-sponsored hackers have breached its SharePoint software used by the US agency responsible for maintaining and modernizing the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, according to a report.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency that operates under the auspices of the Department of Energy, was among the targets of a hack allegedly carried out by Chinese-backed cybercriminals, according to Bloomberg News.

A Dutch cybersecurity company estimates that around 400 government agencies in the US, Mauritius, Jordan, South Africa and the Netherlands were impacted by the hack, according to Bloomberg News.

A source familiar with the situation told the financial news site on Tuesday that no sensitive or classified information was known to have been stolen in the hack, which was made possible by exploiting a flaw in Microsoft’s SharePoint document management software.

“The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems. A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored.”

Eye Security’s Vaisha Bernard confirmed in an email to The Post that the firm has identified 400 confirmed compromised SharePoint servers worldwide — most of them being in the US, Netherlands, Germany, France, Vietnam, Australia, Canada and the UAE.

In a blog post, the tech giant identified two reputed cybercriminal organizations, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, in the alleged scheme to exploit flaws in Microsoft’s software that is used by customers on their own networks rather than in the more secure cloud.

These customers are at risk of having their data compromised by the hackers, according to Microsoft, which also fingered a third Chinese-based organization, Storm-2603, as doing the same.

The NNSA wasn’t the only agency that was targeted in the alleged cyberattack.

Among the victims are the US Department of Education, Florida’s Department of Revenue and the Rhode Island General Assembly, which is the Ocean State’s legislative body.

Internationally, governments in Europe and the Middle East have also been targeted. Cybersecurity researchers have detected breaches on more than 100 servers, representing at least 60 victims across various sectors, including energy, consulting and academia.