Hackers stole data center logins for Apple, Microsoft, and many more

Around 2,000 companies and China's foreign exchange platform that use two data centers in Asia are seeing a number of their login passwords being offered for sale by hackers.

Major data centers run by GDS Holdings in Shanghai and ST Telemedia Global Data in Singapore, have reportedly been hacked. According to Bloomberg, the stolen login credentials are for customer support websites, and at least five such sites have subsequently been accessed.

The hackers responsible have seemingly had the credentials for over a year, but in January 2023, offered them for sale for $175,000. They said that they had confirmed some worked, but had been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of logins.

"I used some targets," the hackers are said to have posted. "But unable to handle as total number of companies is over 2,000."

The data centers forced password changes on all of their customers at the start of the year.

It's not been revealed which companies were among those accessed. However, the complete list includes Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba, Goldman Sachs, and Walmart.

Bloomberg says many declined to comment, and Apple failed to respond.

However, a spokesman for Microsoft said that, "We regularly monitor for threats that could impact Microsoft and when potential threats are identified we take appropriate action to protect Microsoft and our customers."

"We have in place additional controls to protect against this type of breach," said a spokesperson from Goldman Sachs, "and we are satisfied that our data was not at risk."

The hack was discovered by a cybersecurity research firm, which sent an operative undercover to infiltrate the group in China.