Those out there who regularly use Teams from tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) may want to be aware of a new and dangerous phenomenon raised by the MuddyWater hacker group. MuddyWater is using Teams as the basis for a ransomware attack that is hitting multiple victims. In fact, 36 victims so far seem to have been hit by a variant of this attack. Microsoft investors took it in stride, though, and gave Microsoft a 2% boost in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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MuddyWater is a state-sponsored hacking group, reports note, that gets its resources from Iran. The attack in question was originally attributed to a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) group that worked under the Chaos branding, but later reports changed things, and pinned the responsibility on MuddyWater instead.
MuddyWater reportedly used Teams as the basis for a social engineering attack to obtain user credentials. A report from Rapid7 noted, “The campaign was characterized by a high-touch social engineering phase conducted via Microsoft Teams, where the attackers utilized interactive screen-sharing to harvest credentials and manipulate multi-factor authentication (MFA). Once inside, the group bypassed traditional ransomware workflows, forgoing file encryption in favor of data exfiltration and long-term persistence via remote management tools like DWAgent.”
Xbox Game Dev Show Hits
Microsoft also rolled out its big Game Dev Update, nearly an hour and a half-long video that featured a range of topics, starting with the future of Xbox and the developer tools that will be used therein. It then pivoted to more word about DirectX, followed by improvements to Xbox Marketplace, and finally, highlights of Microsoft’s appearance at the Game Developer’s Convention.
That covers a lot of ground in one package, and since Microsoft’s Xbox division has already seen so many changes of late, it is clear that Microsoft has a lot coming out in the near-term. The question, though, is just how far Microsoft will be able to get with the players, especially as major competitors like Valve look to roll out new platforms that will directly address the connection between Microsoft gamers and their PC equivalent.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 33 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 5.53% loss in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $559.98 per share implies 32.96% upside potential.
