Hacker attack in the US: White House spokeswoman speaks of a "current threat"

In the US, 30,000 companies were targeted by hackers.

It was apparently coordinated by a group from China.

Washington - According to a report, at least 30,000 companies in the United States have been affected by an "unusually aggressive" Chinese hacking attack.

Jennifer Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, spoke of a "current threat".

The attackers exploited a security hole in the Exchange e-mail service operated by Microsoft, stolen e-mails and infected computers with programs that enabled remote control.

This is what cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs wrote on his website.

"Everyone who uses these servers must act now," said Psaki and advised to install an available security update as soon as possible.

“We fear that there will be a large number of victims.

"After Microsoft published the security update for Exchange on Tuesday, the number of attacks" rose dramatically, "wrote Krebs, citing anonymous sources.

"At least 30,000 organizations in the United States, including a significant number of small businesses, city and regional governments, have been attacked in the past few days by an unusually aggressive Chinese cyber espionage unit focused on email theft."

Cyber ​​attack in the USA: Chinese hacker group with "unusually aggressive" attack

The hacker group called “Hafnium” by Microsoft is, according to the company, a “very accomplished and highly developed player”.

In the past, according to Microsoft, hafnium had primarily targeted organizations and institutions in the United States.

Affected were therefore "research institutions for infectious diseases, law firms, universities, defense companies, political think tanks and non-governmental organizations".

The group is based in China *, but mainly operates via rented virtual private servers in the USA.

The US authorities have repeatedly accused the Chinese government of being behind hacking attacks in the US.

Beijing regularly rejects this.