April 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board

said on Tuesday a targeted Chinese hack of top government

officials' emails last year was "preventable", faulting

technology giant Microsoft ( MSFT ) for its cybersecurity lapses

and a deliberate lack of transparency.

The board said in its report that it identified a series of

decisions taken by Microsoft ( MSFT ) that had decreased enterprise

security, risk management and trust from the customers to

protect their data and operations.

The intrusion, which stemmed from the compromise of a

Microsoft ( MSFT ) engineer's corporate account, was done by Storm-0558,

a hacking group affiliated with the People's Republic of China.

"While no organization is immune to cyberattack from

well-resourced adversaries, we have mobilized our engineering

teams to identify and mitigate legacy infrastructure, improve

processes, and enforce security benchmarks," Microsoft ( MSFT ) said.

"Our security engineers continue to harden all our systems

against attack and implement even more robust sensors and logs

to help us detect and repel the cyber-armies of our adversaries.

We will also review the final report for additional

recommendations."

The board recommended Microsoft ( MSFT ) to develop and make

security-focused reforms across all its products.

Last year, the technology giant said the intrusion of senior

officials at the U.S. State and Commerce departments was done by

Storm-0558, which is alleged to have stolen hundreds of

thousands of emails from top American officials including

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Ambassador to China

Nicholas Burns and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia

Daniel Kritenbrink.