Microsoft Was Hacked In 2013, Never Said Anything

Tech giants getting hacked has become so common these days that it’s hardly newsworthy to a lot of people. However, it’s still jarring to find out when a company like Microsoft was hacked in 2013 and chose to stay silent about it. The incident was only revealed when former employees finally spilled the beans and it apparently involved Microsoft’s own database of software vulnerabilities.

Five former employees of the Windows OS giant recently spoke to Reuters in separate interviews to reveal exactly what happened in 2013. The breach is a significant point of interest, especially for Windows users since it involves Microsoft’s own internal database of what vulnerabilities certain software possess.

According to their statements, Microsoft chose to deal with the breach quietly instead of revealing the incident to the public. While the bugs have likely been patched shortly after the hacking incident, it still alarmed the employees to know that the hackers could have used the vulnerabilities to cause havoc during the interim.

The tech firm did apparently inform certain US officials, but the issue was never made public. This is a huge problem because the breach essentially gave the hackers backdoor access to some of the most prevalent programs that Windows users rely on.

What’s more, the companies that created some of these software products were not told of the breach related to their products either, Geek Wire notes. These companies could have included Apple and Facebook, both of which were hacked right around the same time Microsoft was hit.

For its part, Microsoft finally issued a statement addressing the matter. While it did confirm the breach, it seems the company is not willing to discuss which software or companies were vulnerable during the attack.

“In February 2013, we commented on the discovery of malware, similar to that found by other companies at the time, on a small number of computers including some in our Mac business unit. Our investigation found no evidence of information being stolen and used in subsequent attacks,” the statement reads.