Microsoft terminates services for Israeli military after investigation into mass surveillance of Palestinians


Microsoft has terminated a set of services for the Israeli military after an investigation suggested Israel was using the company’s cloud computing technology for mass surveillance of Palestinians. In a statement posted the company’s blog,

Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense.” The move comes after an investigation by The Guardian and Israel’s +972 Magazine in early-August reported that Israel’s military intelligence unit, known as 8200, relied on Microsoft Azure to store millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Read more…
Source: CNN News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Microsoft confirms Chinese, Iranian, and Russian cyber-attacks on Biden and Trump campaigns

    September 10, 2020

    Microsoft said today that Chinese, Iranian, and Russian state-sponsored hackers had tried to breach email accounts belonging to people associated with the Biden and Trump election campaigns. The “majority of these attacks” were detected and blocked, according to Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President for Customer Security & Trust at Microsoft. Burt disclosed the incidents in a blog ...

  • Purple Fox EK Adds Microsoft Exploits to Arsenal

    July 6, 2020

    The Purple Fox exploit kit (EK) has added two new exploits targeting critical- and high-severity Microsoft vulnerabilities to its bag of tricks – and researchers say they expect more attacks to be added in the future. The Purple Fox EK was previously analyzed in September, when researchers said that it appears to have been built to replace the Rig ...

  • Excel Files with Hidden Sheets Target Users in Italy

    May 5, 2020

    A spam campaign using emails that have Excel file (.xls) attachments (detected by Trend Micro as Trojan.XF.HIDDBOOK.THDBHBO) has been seen circulating and targeting users in Italy and some users in Germany and other countries. The attachment appears blank when opened, but it has a sheet set to “hidden” that attempts to connect to a URL and download a ...

  • Remote spring: the rise of RDP bruteforce attacks

    April 29, 2020

    With the spread of COVID-19, organizations worldwide have introduced remote working, which is having a direct impact on cybersecurity and the threat landscape. Alongside the higher volume of corporate traffic, the use of third-party services for data exchange, and employees working on home computers (and potentially insecure Wi-Fi networks), another headache for infosec teams is the ...

  • Single Malicious GIF Opened Microsoft Teams to Nasty Attack

    April 27, 2020

    Microsoft has fixed a subdomain takeover vulnerability in its collaboration platform Microsoft Teams that could have allowed an inside attacker to weaponize a single GIF image and use it to pilfer data from targeted systems and take over all of an organization’s Teams accounts. The attack simply involved tricking a victim into viewing a malicious GIF ...

  • Analysis: Suspicious “Very Hidden” Formula on Excel 4.0 Macro Sheet

    April 6, 2020

    A malicious Microsoft Excel 4.0 Macro sheet with a suspicious formula that is set as “Very Hidden” was submitted by a customer and further analyzed by Trend Micro researchers. The sheet is not readily accessible via the Microsoft Excel User Interface (UI) due to a feature documented in the Microsoft website that allows users to hide sheets. ...