Following a recent cyberattack in which China-based hackers reportedly breached the email accounts of approximately 25 organizations, including some government agencies, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is working to up its cybersecurity game. The tech titan has come under fire for infiltration of its email system and is now offering cybersecurity tools for free to help organizations detect potential cyber threats, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Among those affected by the cyberattack were State Department officials and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. However, as US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan noted, the breach was detected fairly quickly, preventing further unauthorized access. Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft’s vice president of security, revealed that Microsoft will offer 31 security tools for free to those who subscribe to its more affordable cloud services. The hacking group, dubbed Storm-0558, allegedly gained access to user emails by forging authentication tokens using a stolen Microsoft account signing key. Although China has denied any involvement, this activity began on May 15 and has continued.
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong buy consensus on MSFT stock based on 31 buys, three holds and one sell awarded in the last three months, as shown in the figure above. However, the average price target of $354.26 per share implies a downside risk of 1.45%.
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