Microsoft Outage In June Most Likely Caused By Hackers With Russian Links: Report

On June 5, the company’s 365 software suite was down for more than two hours

In early June, Microsoft services were down for millions of users across the world. Experts now claim that the outage was most likely caused by hackers who belong to a Russian-linked group, Guardian reported. It was initially believed that the hackers are an Islamic group with links in Sudan as it is being claimed by them. 

Last week, Microsoft confirmed that outages to its Outlook service were the result of a DoS attack believed to have been carried out by Anonymous Sudan

However, cybersecurity firm CyberCX released a report on Monday that said that Anonymous Sudan is unlikely to be an authentic hacktivist organisation. The firm said that it is likely that it has links with the Russian state. 

The firm reasoned that the operation to direct huge amounts of traffic to a service would need tens of thousands of dollars and hence it was unlikely that Anonymous Sudan was a loose collective. 

CyberCX also said Anonymous Sudan was publicly aligned with pro-Russian threat actors and is a member of the pro-Russian hacker group Killnet.

Alastair MacGibbon, CyberCX’s chief strategy officer, told Guardian Australia that Anonymous Sudan’s generally low-level targets and the fact it was presenting itself as an Islamic group indicated a Russian-backed organisation that could be trying to ”drive division in society” and disrupt the West.

“It really stems from the Russian government’s proclivities to drive division in society. They don’t really care about the issue … anti-racism, pro-environment or whatever – [they] just get into whatever it is that matters to [harm] targets. In this case, the Wes,” he said.

 On June 5, the company’s 365 software suite, including Teams and Outlook, was down for more than two hours for thousands of users and a brief recurrence the following morning. 

Notably, Microsoft services have faced at least three outages since the beginning of the year.