The hackers behind the deadly cyberattack on IT service provider Solarwinds are now targeting dozens of tech companies, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft security researchers said Monday that around 140 technology service providers have been notified of attacks since May alone. Hackers were successful in up to one in ten of them.

Above Solarwinds computer maintenance software, also used by the German federal authorities, the attackers were likely used for spying on the computer networks of US government agencies, including the Department of Finance and Energy.

The attack was discovered late last year. The exact extent of the information captured has not been made public to date. The US government and computer security researchers suspect behind the Attack by hackers with ties to the Russian foreign intelligence service. Moscow has always denied the allegations.

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Microsoft calls the hacker group “Nobelium”. Recently, she has focused on companies that set up and maintain cloud services for other businesses. They were probably hoping to use service providers ‘access to their customers’ computer systems, Microsoft experts explained.

Cybercriminals had already succeeded with such an attack method over the summer. Using a vulnerability at IT service provider Kaseya, they were able to encrypt customers’ computers and demand a ransom.

Since July 1, Microsoft has informed 609 customers of nearly 23,000 “Nobelium” attacks, he said. The attack success rate is in the low single-digit percentage range. “The recent activity is another indication that Russia is trying to gain systematic long-term access to technology supply chains – and to create a mechanism by which targets of interest to the Russian government can be monitored now or in the future, “wrote Microsoft Experts. (dpa)