Microsoft has found malicious software in its systems

Microsoft Corp says it has found malicious software in its systems related to a massive hacking campaign disclosed by US officials this week, adding a top technology target to a growing list of attacked government agencies.

The Redmond, Washington company is a user of Orion, the widely deployed networking management software from Solar Winds Corp which was used in the suspected Russian attacks on vital US agencies and others.

The company also has its own products leveraged to attack victims, said people familiar with the matter. The US National Security Agency issued a rare “cybersecurity advisory” on Thursday detailing how certain Microsoft Azure cloud services may have been compromised by hackers and directing users to lock down their systems.

“Like other Solar Winds customers, we have been actively looking for indicators of this actor and can confirm that we detected malicious Solar Winds binaries in our environment, which we isolated and removed,” a Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company had found “no indications that our systems were used to attack others”.

One of the people familiar with the hacking spree said the hackers made use of Microsoft cloud offerings while avoiding Microsoft’s corporate infrastructure.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to questions about the technique.