Earlier in April, a cyberattack targeted Microsoft Outlook email users. Hackers managed to gain access to email content and user metadata. However, many users are reporting that the attack also resulted in the theft of funds from cryptocurrency. This is likely the hackers' real goal.
According to Motherboard, hackers breached Microsoft 's email system and gained access to login credentials belonging to employees of a Microsoft customer support service.
In this way, the attackers were able to steal content from Outlook, MSN, and Hotmail. It is not certain that the hackers had full access to all user data. However, they were able to empty the cryptocurrency accounts of many victims.
One user, Jevon Ritmeester, said: “The hackers also had access to my Inbox, which allowed them to reset my password to my Kraken.com account and withdraw my Bitcoins.”.
Kraken is a popular cryptocurrency exchange. The hackers gained access to the victim's inbox and redirected emails related to the Kraken account to an email address they controlled. This way, any requests for passwords or Bitcoin withdrawals were handled by the hackers.
Motherboard reported that hackers stole 1 Bitcoin from Jevon Ritmeester, which was worth about $5,000.
Ritmeester believes that Microsoft has not taken this particular leak seriously, even though many users have been affected, since third-party access to Inbox can be very dangerous. Most people have important personal information in Inbox . In fact, he is considering filing a complaint, as he holds Microsoft responsible for the financial damage he suffered and for the possible leakage of his personal information by hackers.
It is currently unknown whether Microsoft is aware of the theft of victims' money. We also do not know the exact amount of money stolen.
The only thing that is certain is that users, especially those with cryptocurrency accounts, should take extra protection measures, such as implementing two-factor authentication.
