Microsoft attributes the cyberattack on Charlie Hebdo to Iranian state actors | Lotal Ghana

 Microsoft attributes the cyberattack on Charlie Hebdo to Iranian state actors

 

The stolen subscriber information was made available for purchase online by the Charlie Hebdo hackers, whose operation Microsoft code-named "Neptunium." It cost 20 bitcoins.

 

 

 

Microsoft, a major player in US computing, announced on Friday that Iranian state agents were responsible for the recent cyberattack on the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo.

 

 

 

According to Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft's Digital Threat Analysis Center, the "Holy Souls" hackers were actually the Iranian cybersecurity company Emennet Pasargad.

 

 

 

Early in January, Holy Souls made the announcement that they had amassed the personal data of more than 200,000 readers of Charlie Hebdo and published a sample of the material as evidence.

 

 

After publishing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei caricatures in a special issue to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 12 people killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo's Paris offices in 2015, the magazine came under cyberattack.

 

 

 

 

Iran has warned France not to publish the "insulting and indecent" caricatures.

 

 

Two Iranians, Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian, who were charged by the US Justice Department in November 2021, worked for Emennet Pasargad.

 

 

 

 

During the 2020 US presidential election, they allegedly ran a cyber effort "to scare and influence American voters, otherwise weaken voter trust, and foment dissension."

 

 

 

According to the department, Kazemi and Kashian reportedly collected private voter data, sent ominous emails, disseminated fake material to sway both Democratic and Republican voters, and made attempts to get into websites important to state elections.

 

 

 

According to Microsoft, the Charlie Hebdo hackers' "Neptunium" operation advertised the stolen subscriber information online for 20 bitcoin, which is presently worth $460,000 (or close to Rs. 3.80 crore).

 

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Regardless of one's opinion on Charlie Hebdo's editorial decisions, Microsoft stated that the disclosure of personally identifiable information about tens of thousands of its customers constituted a serious threat.