UK says it's working with Microsoft to understand impact of Chinese email hack

Representative image. Credit: iStock Photo

Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said on Thursday it was working with Microsoft to understand the impact of a wide-reaching Chinese hack which accessed email accounts used by senior US government officials and agencies.

On Tuesday, Microsoft revealed that a stealthy Chinese hacking operation had exploited a secret flaw in a piece of its authentication software in order to covertly break into email accounts belonging to 25 unnamed organisations.

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"We are working with Microsoft to fully understand the incident and UK impact," said a spokesperson for the NCSC, which is part of Britain's GCHQ spy agency.