Wouldn’t you wish to know what tech giants find out about you? That’s precisely what Russian authorities hackers need, too.

On Friday, Microsoft disclosed that the hacking group it calls Midnight Blizzard, also called APT29 or Cozy Bear — and broadly believed to be sponsored by the Russian authorities — hacked some company e mail accounts, together with these of the corporate’s “senior management staff and workers in our cybersecurity, authorized, and different features.”

Curiously, the hackers didn’t go after buyer knowledge or the standard company data they might have usually gone after. They wished to know extra about themselves, or extra particularly, they wished to know what Microsoft is aware of about them, based on the corporate.

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“The investigation signifies they have been initially concentrating on e mail accounts for data associated to Midnight Blizzard itself,” the corporate wrote in a weblog put up and SEC disclosure.

In response to Microsoft, the hackers used a “password spray assault” — basically brute forcing — in opposition to a legacy account, then used that account’s permissions “to entry a really small share of Microsoft company e mail accounts.”

Microsoft didn’t disclose what number of e mail accounts have been breached, nor precisely what data the hackers accessed or stole.

Firm spokespeople didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Microsoft took benefit of stories of this hack to speak about how they will transfer ahead to make itself safer.

“For Microsoft, this incident has highlighted the pressing want to maneuver even quicker. We are going to act instantly to use our present safety requirements to Microsoft-owned legacy techniques and inner enterprise processes, even when these modifications may trigger disruption to current enterprise processes,” the corporate wrote. “This may doubtless trigger some degree of disruption whereas we adapt to this new actuality, however this can be a mandatory step, and solely the primary of a number of we might be taking to embrace this philosophy.”

APT29, or Cozy Bear, is broadly believed to be a Russian hacking group working answerable for a sequence of high-profile assaults, corresponding to these in opposition to SolarWinds in 2019, the Democratic Nationwide Committee in 2015, and lots of extra.