Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the next victim of hackers in Chinese mainland as its email service, Outlook, was compromised over the weekend. This is the second incident in as many months after China blocked Gmail service from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
According to a Chinese censor watchdog, GreatFire.org, a “Man-In-The-Middle” (MITM) attack affected several email clients including Outlook and mobile apps using IMAP and SMTP email protocols. Under this attack, the hackers take control of a channel used for online monitoring of the communication and can even control these messages. According to the critics, it is a Chinese initiative to block foreign email and internet services to create a cutoff from the rest of the world.
GreatFire.org mentioned that they suspect Chinese authorities to head these activities and added on its website,
“If our accusation is correct, this new attack signals that the Chinese authorities are intent on further cracking down on communication methods that they cannot readily monitor.”
China operates an advanced censorship mechanism, the Great Firewall, to block out any dissent against the ruling party. The country has a history of controlling Internet access available to its citizen and the attack on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s Outlook is another example of the same.
Earlier, last month, the Chinese authorities blocked Gmail service client from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) forcing its users to adapt local email services. The company moved its servers out of the country in 2010 and relocated them in Hong Kong.
On the technology front, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is rolling out new models of Lumia preinstalled with Denim mobile app. Denim is an app designed to enhance the overall user experience for Lumia customers. It includes additional capabilities for its Cortana, personal assistant service from Microsoft, background video processing, and mobile Internet Explorer enhancements.
The shares of Microsoft Corporation are trading at $46.24 with current P/E ratio of 18.11.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
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