Microsoft to notify users of government hacking after Chinese Hotmail hacking scandal

Microsoft has announced it will now notify Outlook.com email users if they have been targeted by state sponsored hackers, in the wake of a previously unreported hacking scandal.

The policy change was announced Wednesday, after Reuters reported the company failed to inform thousands of Hotmail users that their email accounts had been hacked by the Chinese government in 2011. According to the report, Chinese authorities targeted the accounts of diplomats, reporters, human rights lawyers and other people with “sensitive positions” within China.

“According to two former employees of Microsoft, the company’s own experts had concluded several years ago that Chinese authorities had been behind the campaign but the company did not pass on that information to users of its Hotmail service,” read the report.

According to Reuters, those affected by the hack were notified by Hotmail to reset their passwords, but a potential hack was never mentioned.

Preivously, Microsoft notified users if their accounts had been targeted or compromised by a third-party; however, the company did not provide any warning about government hacks.

READ MORE: Twitter warns users of government hacking

In a blog post published Wednesday, Microsoft’s vice president of trustworthy computing, Scott Charney, said users will now be notified if Microsoft has evidence the account has been targeted by state sponsored hackers in hopes they can take additional steps to keep their accounts secure.

“We’re taking this additional step of specifically letting you know if we have evidence that the attacker may be “state-sponsored” because it is likely that the attack could be more sophisticated or more sustained than attacks from cybercriminals and others,” wrote Charney.

“These notifications do not mean that Microsoft’s own systems have in any way been compromised. If you receive one of these notifications it doesn’t necessarily mean that your account has been compromised, but it does mean we have evidence your account has been targeted, and it’s very important you take additional measures to keep your account secure. ”

Google, Facebook, Twitter and most recently Yahoo, all notify users of these types of attacks.

Earlier this month Twitter handed out its first government hacking warning to several users. Canadian non-profit organization Coldhak – which does research in privacy, security and freedom of speech – tweeted a screenshot of an email it received from Twitter, warning that hackers may have tried to obtain personal information related to their account.

Twitter has not provided additional information about the attack or possible suspects in its investigation.