Russian hackers steal US government emails with Microsoft, officials confirm

Russian state-backed hackers have stolen email correspondence between US government agencies and Microsoft via a breach of the software giant’s systems, US officials confirmed on Thursday.

Russian state-backed hackers have stolen email correspondence between US government agencies and Microsoft via a breach of the software giant’s systems, US officials confirmed on Thursday. Microsoft has notified “several” US federal agencies that the hackers may have stolen emails that Microsoft sent to those agencies that included login information such as usernames, or passwords, Eric Goldstein, a senior official at the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told reporters. “At this time, we are not aware of any agency production environments that have experienced a compromise as a result of a credential exposure,” Goldstein said. In other words, a CISA official told CNN, there is no evidence yet that the hackers had used the stolen credentials to successfully break into federal computer systems that are actively in use. But the breach of Microsoft emails is still forcing the tech giant and US cyber officials to scramble to ensure there is no further damage at the hands of the alleged Russian operatives. CISA on Thursday publicly released an “emergency directive” that orders civilian agencies potentially affected by the hacking campaign to shore up their defenses. CISA described the potential exposure of agency login credentials as an “unacceptable risk to agencies.” CNN has requested comment from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.