Scathing federal report rips Microsoft for shoddy security, insincerity in response to Chinese hack

By FRANK BAJAK
AP Technology Writer

BOSTON (AP) — A Biden administration-appointed review board has issued a scathing indictment of Microsoft corporate security and transparency. The panel says in Tuesday’s report that “a cascade of errors” by the tech giant let state-backed Chinese cyber operators break into email accounts last year of senior U.S. officials including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The Cyber Safety Review Board describes what is says is shoddy cybersecurity, a lax corporate culture and a lack of sincerity about the company’s knowledge of the targeted breach, which affected multiple U.S. agencies that deal with China. Microsoft said it appreciated the board’s investigation. It added that recent events “have demonstrated a need to adopt a new culture of engineering security in our own network.”