Microsoft 365 and Azure Witness More DDoS Attacks

Microsoft has recently been the victim of major DDoS attacks. Some of these caused noticeable disruptions to various services at the beginning of the current month. The perpetrators also publicly boast about their actions.

The attacks caused problems with the Office services provided as part of Microsoft 365. But the company’s cloud services were also struggling, so customers running their own offerings on the Azure platform were also affected. This is according to a report by Hacker News.

After Microsoft initially held back from naming the cause, the company has since announced that DDoS attacks by a group called Storm-1359 were actually responsible. However, this is not a self-chosen name of the perpetrators, but an attribution by Microsoft’s security department. Storm-hash is a temporary designation assigned by the software company to unknown, emerging or developing groups whose identity or affiliation has not yet been definitively established.

Reluctance has reasons

However, Microsoft has provided few details – and has not commented on how many customers were affected and whether the impact was global. However, a spokeswoman confirmed that a group calling itself Anonymous Sudan was behind the attacks. This claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel. Some security researchers believe the group to be Russian, despite its name.

Microsoft justified its reluctance on the matter by saying that the group’s primary concern was disruption and publicity. A larger public debate is therefore more likely to play into the hands of the perpetrators – on the other hand, customers are also interested in being informed about the background.