China-based hackers have breached government and individual email accounts, Microsoft says

By ZEN SOO
AP Technology Writer

HONG KONG (AP) — China has called accusations that a China-based hacking group breached government-linked email accounts “disinformation,” saying they were meant to divert attention from U.S. cyber activities. Microsoft said in a blog post published Tuesday that the hackers, which it identified as Storm-0558, gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organizations including government agencies and to accounts of individuals linked to those organizations. The breach went undetected for about a month until customers complained to Microsoft about abnormal mail activity. The hackers used forged authentication tokens required to access the email accounts to break in.