US technology giant Microsoft has restricted Chinese companies from sending early notifications of cyber vulnerabilities in the company's products, Bloomberg reported.
The company took this step in July after a hacker attack on the Microsoft SharePoint document management platform. The company claims that the Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon groups, which US authorities have linked to China, may have been involved in the attacks.
In connection with the attacks, Microsoft decided to restrict access to the Microsoft Active Protection Program (MAPP) in countries where “companies are required to report vulnerabilities to their governments“.
In July, the American portal Defense One, citing sources, reportedthat the US Department of Homeland Security had suffered from hacker attacks on the Microsoft SharePoint platform, as a result of which signs of a leak of internal departmental data were found. In addition to the department itself, the attack also affected its member agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, and the US Customs and Border Protection Service. In total, according to sources, about 5-10 US federal agencies were affected by the attacks.