Microsoft may have accidentally left a hacker-sized door open to hundreds of thousands of organizations.
What happened: The tech giant says Chinese state-backed hackers are actively exploiting a flaw in its document-sharing software, SharePoint, to break into networks around the world, including in Canada.
- So far, victims include government agencies in Europe, the U.S., and the Middle East, as well as a number of unnamed universities and businesses.
- Organizations with self-hosted SharePoint servers (that is, not running on Microsoft’s cloud) are being specifically targeted in the hacking campaign.
Catch-up: A breach in SharePoint doesn’t just risk internal files — it compromises everything in the Microsoft ecosystem, including Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive. Once inside, hackers can steal login credentials, plant malware, and even impersonate users.
- Microsoft has released security updates since the alarm was sounded on Saturday, but researchers say some attackers have figured out how to stay in the victim’s systems undetected.
Why it matters: Canadian companies and government agencies are especially vulnerable because many run SharePoint on their own servers. One cybersecurity firm flagged Canada as one of the top four most exposed countries in the world.
Big picture: Whether it's Microsoft, Amazon, or CrowdStrike, having hundreds of thousands of critical systems run on the same digital infrastructure makes way for a dangerous domino effect when these security breaches inevitably occur.—LA