A year after suspected hackers with ties to China hacked Microsoft and used the company’s email system to snoop on government emails, Microsoft President Brad Smith answered questions about the company’s security procedures and relationship with China at a House homeland security subcommittee on Thursday.
A year after suspected hackers with ties to China hacked Microsoft and used the company’s email system to snoop on federal emails, Microsoft President Brad Smith answered questions about the company’s security procedures and relationship with China at a House homeland security subcommittee on Thursday.
According to Microsoft’s admissions, hackers gained access to 60,000 emails from the U.S. State Department by breaching the company’s networks last summer. This year, cybercriminals with ties to Russia also surveilled Microsoft’s top staff emails.
The congressional hearing takes place in the midst of heightened federal investigation of Microsoft, the largest software company in the world and a major supplier to the US government and national security apparatus. According to Smith during the hearing, Microsoft’s business makes up around 3% of the federal IT budget in the United States.
A year after suspected hackers with ties to China hacked Microsoft and used the company’s email system to snoop on federal emails, Microsoft President Brad Smith answered questions about the company’s security procedures and relationship with China at a House homeland security subcommittee on Thursday.
According to Microsoft’s admissions, hackers gained access to 60,000 emails from the U.S. State Department by breaching the company’s networks last summer. This year, cybercriminals with ties to Russia also surveilled Microsoft’s top staff emails.
The congressional hearing takes place in the midst of heightened federal investigation of Microsoft, the largest software company in the world and a major supplier to the US government and national security apparatus. According to Smith during the hearing, Microsoft’s business makes up around 3% of the federal IT budget in the United States.
The head of Microsoft will testify before a House panel regarding security flaws.
Congress grilled Microsoft for failing to stop the Chinese and Russian hacks, which they claimed endangered government networks even if less advanced techniques were not used.
Russian hackers obtained emails from the corporation that “included correspondence with government officials,” Democratic congresswoman Bennie Thompson claimed.
“Microsoft is one of the federal government’s most important technology and security partners, but we cannot afford to allow the importance of that relationship to enable complacency or interfere with our oversight,” he stated.
The Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), a panel of specialists assembled by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, released an alarming report in April that lawmakers used as support. The report blasted Microsoft for its lack of transparency on the China attack and called it preventable.
At the hearing, Smith stated, “We accept responsibility for each and every finding in the CSRB report,” adding that Microsoft has started implementing most of the study’s recommendations.
“We’re dealing with formidable foes in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and they’re getting better,” stated Smith. “They’re getting more aggressive … They’re waging attacks at an extraordinary rate.”
Thompson chastised Smith’s employer for not identifying the hack, which the US State Department ultimately found. In response, Smith stated: “That’s how it ought to operate. In an ecosystem, no single entity can observe everything.”
Congressman Thompson, though, was unconvinced.
“We’re not supposed to track down the offenders. We’re paying you for it, Thompson said.
Since Microsoft had made significant investments in creating research incentives in China, panel members also pressed Smith for information about the company’s operations there.
“There are a variety of intricate difficulties and hazards associated with Microsoft’s presence in China,” stated Mississippi Congressman Mark Green, who served as the panel’s chair.
According to Smith, Microsoft receives 1.5% of its revenue from China and is attempting to lower its engineering presence there.
Over the past year, the corporation has come under increasing pressure from its colleagues in the security industry due to the breaches and lack of openness.
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was among the panelists who praised Smith’s answers throughout the hearing. “You said you accept a responsibility, and I just want to commend you for that,” remarked Greene to him.
Microsoft had stated that it was striving to enhance its procedures and enforce security standards in response to the board’s complaints. Launching a new cybersecurity strategy, the corporation declared in November that security will henceforth be its top priority, “above all else – over all other features.”