British police announced today they arrested two suspects part of an international group that hacked into Microsoft’s network.
The two suspects are a 22-year-old man from Lincolnshire and a 25-year-old man from Bracknell. The South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) arrested the two this morning, searched their homes for evidence, and seized a number of devices.
Suspects are part of a larger group
SEROCU officials said the arrests are related to an “unauthorised intrusion into networks belonging to Microsoft.”
The first suspect is accused of “gaining unauthorised access to a computer,” while the second suspect was arrested for “computer misuse act offences.”
British police said the two suspects are part of an international group, and similar investigations are taking place in other countries.
SEROCU said that other parties involved in the inquiry include EMSOU (East Midlands Special Operations Unit), the FBI, EUROPOL, the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), and Microsoft’s cyber team.
Microsoft: Hackers didn’t access customer data
Through the SEROCU spokesperson, Microsoft said the intruders didn’t access any customer data, but investigators said they are still analyzing what portions of the company’s network they were able to access.
Investigators said the hack took place between January 2017 to March 2017. The two suspects are currently in police custody.
SEROCU didn’t make itself available for comments and said they wouldn’t issue any updates on the hack at this stage of the investigation.
“We are still in the early stages of this investigation and will work with our partners to ensure that cyber criminals have no place to hide,” said Det Sgt Rob Bryant from SEROCU’s Cyber Crime Unit.
Earlier this year, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against a Chinese company that was selling game currencies for Xbox users. In its lawsuit, Microsoft made allegations that the Chinese company was hacking into customer accounts, buying game currency with users’ payment cards, and transferring funds to its accounts, from where it was selling it to other users using an online website.
Working as a cyber security solutions architect, Alisa focuses on application and network security. Before joining us she held a cyber security researcher positions within a variety of cyber security start-ups. She also experience in different industry domains like finance, healthcare and consumer products.
