White House calls ‘active threat’, insists Microsoft has acted

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Sunday called on computer network operators to take further steps to determine if their systems were targeted amid a hack by Microsoft Corp.’s Outlook email program, saying a recent software pattern still has serious vulnerabilities.

“This is an active threat that is still evolving and we urge network operators to take it very seriously,” a White House official said, adding that top US security officials were deciding what next steps to take. the offense.

CNN reported separately on Sunday that the Biden government has put together a task force to address the hack. The White House official said in a statement that the government was providing a “complete response” to the government.

While Microsoft last week released a patch to remove bugs in its email software, the solution still leaves a so-called backdoor that threatens access to fraudsters and allows further attacks by others.

“We cannot stress enough that recovery and mitigation are not remedies if the servers have already been compromised, and it is imperative that any organization with a vulnerable server take steps to determine if they have already been targeted,” the official said. of the White House said.

Already, a source told Reuters that more than 20,000 American organizations were compromised by the hack, which Microsoft accused China of, although Beijing denies any role.

The backward channels for remote access can affect credit unions, town governments and small businesses, and have left U.S. officials struggling to reach victims. The FBI on Sunday asked them to contact the law enforcement agency.

Those affected apparently keep web versions of Microsoft’s email program Outlook on their own machines instead of cloud providers, which could potentially save many large corporations and federal government agencies, the investigation found.

A Microsoft representative said Sunday he was working with the government and others to help guide customers, and the company called on those customers to apply software updates as soon as possible.

Neither the company nor the White House specified the extent of the hack. Microsoft initially said it was limited, but the White House last week expressed concern about the potential for a large number of victims.

So far, only a small percentage of infected networks have been compromised through the back door, the source told Reuters earlier, but more attacks are expected.