The now-famous Syrian Electronic Armyhas claimed to have hacked into various Microsoft services, including Skype's blog and employee email accounts. Following these breaches, several files were leaked, which they claim contain conversations between Microsoft and the FBI.
The documents show that the tech company receives hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide access to the data of people who use its services. Specifically, the FBI is reportedly paying up to $200 for each access to a user account of the company's services.
The files presented by the hacktivists show alleged invoices issued by Microsoft's Global Criminal Compliance department to the FBI's Digital Intercept Technology Unit. In these invoices, the Windows company appears to have received $281,000 for November 2013 alone, Softpedia reports.
The leaked documents reveal some of the data Microsoft shared with FBI agents: login information, first and last name, state, ZIP code, country, time zone, IP address, and date of service registration.
One of the files leaked by the hackers reportedly comes from a hacked email account belonging to Microsoft and features a message submitted by the FBI asking Redmond for clarification on an issue they are facing with accessing a specific user account.
“First of all, thank you for the prompt response to the search warrant. I have been trying all day to access the files. The instructions are excellent. However, with the access key, the following message appears: “Sorry, this service is currently unavailable.” Any suggestions? Thank you.”
The message is signed by the “Federal Bureau of Investigation” and comes from an email that apparently left the fbi.gov domain.
The Redmond- based company has not commented on the matter, but the company is expected to state that it does not provide access to user accounts to intelligence agencies unless a federal court requests it.
If the documents are indeed real, they raise a lot of questions for the “innocent” Microsoft.
