Chinese hackers suspected of breaching US nuclear weapons agency
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which maintains the US nuclear arsenal, has been targeted via a vulnerability in Microsoft's document system SharePoint, according to reports.
Microsoft has warned that hackers linked to Beijing are exploiting the flaw, while Britain's National Cyber Security Centre has said organisations in the UK have also been hit.
The flaw allows hackers to remotely run software code on victims' servers, potentially allowing them to install malicious software and steal data.
According to Bloomberg, which reported the breach, no sensitive information is believed to have been stolen in the hack on the NNSA.
A spokesman for the US energy department said it was 'minimally impacted' by the hack last Friday.
'On Friday, July 18, the exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy,' it said.
'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.'
It is unclear whether Chinese hackers are responsible for the nuclear agency attack.
However, Microsoft has alleged that China-linked groups dubbed Linen Typhoon, Violet Typhoon and Storm-2603 have been exploiting the software vulnerability.
'It seems logical that it would be the Chinese,' said Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey. 'It's more likely to be people who want to conduct cyberespionage.'
Microsoft has released security updates to fix the flaw and advised customers to install them.
The National Cyber Security Centre said this week that a 'limited number' of organisations in the UK had been affected by the attack.
The flaw disproportionately targets government agencies since they are more likely to run Microsoft software on their own servers. Many companies run the software on Microsoft's cloud, which has not been affected by the attacks.
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