Microsoft Email Breach Impacted General Land Office, Workforce Commission

At least two, if not five or more, Texas state agencies were reportedly affected by the Microsoft email breach perpetrated by Russian state-sponsored hackers in January.

Microsoft attributes the Jan. 12 hack to Midnight Blizzard, which has ties to the Russian government. The group attacked Hewlett Packard Enterprise last year and is said to be an iteration of Cozy Bear, which attacked Solar Winds in 2020, according to Ars Technica.

Department of Information Resources (DIR) Deputy Executive Director Steve Pier confirmed state employee emails to Microsoft were accessed but appeared to be only “routine administrative communications,” according to a June 28 report from Bloomberg.

Potentially impacted agencies include:

• Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)
• Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)
• Texas General Land Office (GLO)
• Texas State Securities Board (TSSB)
• Texas Workforce Commission (TWC)

The publication didn’t name its source, citing a “person familiar with the matter” but was able to confirm that GLO and TWC were involved. According to the report, the state is in the early stages of investigation and compromised emails included support requests sent to Microsoft.