03:39 AM EDT, 04/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with Microsoft's ( MSFT ) response in the final paragraphs.)

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) corporate culture contributed to the July 2023 intrusion into the Exchange Online system by a suspected Chinese hacking group, a federal agency said in a review published Tuesday.

The US Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Safety Review Board said "operational and strategic decisions" by Microsoft ( MSFT ) allowed the breach of the cloud-computing service to take place.

The board urged Microsoft ( MSFT ) to "develop and publicly share a plan with specific timelines to make fundamental, security-focused reforms across the company and its suite of products."

The board said Microsoft ( MSFT ) cooperated with the review.

In a statement, a Microsoft ( MSFT ) spokesperson attributed the attack to "well-resourced nation-state threat actors who operate continuously and without meaningful deterrence." It acknowledged the need "to adopt a new culture of engineering security" for its networks.

"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," the spokesperson said.

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