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Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism

Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism
The university recently adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. (AP)
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Updated 22 sec ago

Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism

Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university’s new definition of antisemitism
  • The university recently adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism
  • Columbia University genocide scholar Marianne Hirsch, is reconsidering her teaching role

NEW YORK: For years, Marianne Hirsch, a prominent genocide scholar at Columbia University, has used Hannah Arendt’s book about the trial of a Nazi war criminal, “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” to spark discussion among her students about the Holocaust and its lingering traumas.
But after Columbia’s recent adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, which casts certain criticism of Israel as hate speech, Hirsch fears she may face official sanction for even mentioning the landmark text by Arendt, a philosopher who criticized Israel’s founding.
For the first time since she started teaching five decades ago, Hirsch, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is now thinking of leaving the classroom altogether.
“A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,” she told The Associated Press. “I just don’t see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.”
Hirsch is not alone. At universities across the country, academics have raised alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration, often under the threat of federal funding cuts.
Promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the definition lists 11 examples of antisemitic conduct, such as applying “double standards” to Israel, comparing the country’s policies to Nazism or describing its existence as “a racist endeavor.”
Ahead of a $220 million settlement with the Trump administration announced Wednesday, Columbia agreed to incorporate the IHRA definition and its examples into its disciplinary process. It has been endorsed in some form by Harvard, Yale and dozens of other universities.
While supporters say the semantic shift is necessary to combat evolving forms of Jewish hate, civil liberties groups warn it will further suppress pro-Palestinian speech already under attack by President Donald Trump.
For Hirsch, the restrictions on drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and questioning Israel’s founding amount to “clear censorship,” which she fears will chill discussions in the classroom and open her and other faculty up to spurious lawsuits.
“We learn by making analogies,” Hirsch said. “Now the university is saying that’s off-limits. How can you have a university course where ideas are not up for discussion or interpretation?”
A spokesperson for Columbia didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
The ‘weaponization’ of an educational framework
When he first drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism two decades ago, Kenneth Stern said he “never imagined it would one day serve as a hate speech code.”
At the time, Stern was working as the lead antisemitism expert at the American Jewish Committee. The definition and its examples were meant to serve as a broad framework to help European countries track bias against Jews, he said.
In recent years, Stern has spoken forcefully against what he sees as its “weaponization” against pro-Palestinian activists, including anti-Zionist Jews.
“People who believe they’re combating hate are seduced by simple solutions to complicated issues,” he said. “But when used in this context, it’s really actually harming our ability to think about antisemitism.”
Stern said he delivered that warning to Columbia’s leaders last fall after being invited to address them by Claire Shipman, then a co-chair of the board of trustees and the university’s current interim president.
The conversation seemed productive, Stern said. But in March, shortly after the Trump administration said it would withhold $400 million in federal funding to Columbia over concerns about antisemitism, the university announced it would adopt the IHRA definition for “training and educational” purposes.
Then last week, days before announcing a deal with the Trump administration to restore that funding, Shipman said the university would extend the IHRA definition for disciplinary purposes, deploying its examples when assessing “discriminatory intent.”
“The formal incorporation of this definition will strengthen our response to and our community’s understanding of modern antisemitism,” Shipman wrote.
Stern, who now serves as director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, called the move “appalling,” predicting it would spur a new wave of litigation against the university while further curtailing pro-Palestinian speech.
Already, the university’s disciplinary body has faced backlash for investigating students who criticized Israel in op-eds and other venues, often at the behest of pro-Israel groups.
“With this new edict on IHRA, you’re going to have more outside groups looking at what professors are teaching, what’s in the syllabus, filing complaints and applying public pressure to get people fired,” he said. “That will undoubtedly harm the university.”
Calls to ‘self-terminate’
Beyond adopting the IHRA definition, Columbia has also agreed to place its Middle East studies department under new supervision, overhaul its rules for protests and coordinate antisemitism trainings with groups like the Anti-Defamation League.
Earlier this week, the university suspended or expelled nearly 80 students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said Columbia’s actions were an overdue step to protect Jewish students from harassment.
He dismissed faculty concerns about the IHRA definition, which he said would “provide clarity, transparency and standardization” to the university’s effort to root out antisemitism.
“There are undoubtedly some Columbia professors who will feel they cannot continue teaching under the new regime,” Marcus said. “To the extent that they self-terminate, it may be sad for them personally, but it may not be so bad for the students at Columbia University.”
But Hirsch, the Columbia professor, said she was committed to continuing her long-standing study of genocides and their aftermath.
Part of that work, she said, will involve talking to students about Israel’s “ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide” in Gaza, where more than 58,000 Palestinians have died, over half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“With this capitulation to Trump, it may now be impossible to do that inside Columbia,” Hirsch said. “If that’s the case, I’ll continue my work outside the university’s gates.”


What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida

What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida
Updated 5 min 2 sec ago

What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida

What to know about the man charged with trying to assassinate Trump in Florida
  • Ryan Routh’s court-appointed federal public defenders asked to be taken off the case, saying he had refused repeated attempts to meet with their team
  • Separately, prosecutors trying the case asked a judge ahead of the September trial to rule out the introduction of inadmissible evidence, such as Routh’s previous writings, that may unfairly influence

A man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump in South Florida last year was back in court this week, asking a federal judge to let him represent himself, as prosecutors tried to block him from introducing irrelevant evidence during trial.
Ryan Routh’s court-appointed federal public defenders on Thursday asked to be taken off the case, saying he had refused repeated attempts to meet with their team.
Separately, prosecutors trying the case asked a judge ahead of the September trial to rule out the introduction of inadmissible evidence, such as Routh’s previous writings, that may unfairly influence jurors. The judge was planning to hear arguments over that matter on Friday.
Here’s what to know about the case.
The judge lets Ryan Routh represent himself
US District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off Thursday on Ryan Routh’s request to represent himself during his trial but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.
The judge told Routh that she believed it was a bad idea for Routh to represent himself, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood and would be ready.
On Friday, the judge was hearing a motion from prosecutors to limit unrelated evidence at trial. “As the Court knows, Routh has been very explicit in his desire to turn this trial into a circus where his supposed good character is weighed against the President’s,” the prosecutors wrote.
Routh is a self-styled mercenary leader
The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told The Associated Press.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.
In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, from power tools and building supplies to kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.
Routh is charged with attempted assassination
Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, who was running for his second term last September as the GOP presidential nominee, while he played golf at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate; possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime; assaulting a federal officer; felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Judge presided over Trump’s classified documents case
If the judge’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case.
Last year, Cannon sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the US Justice Department. Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office last January.
Cannon was a former federal prosecutor who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020.
Trump was not hurt in the incident
He was fine. US Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.
Last September’s assassination attempt took place just nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life in Pennsylvania.


Trump’s trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family’s business

Trump’s trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family’s business
Updated 7 min 30 sec ago

Trump’s trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family’s business

Trump’s trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family’s business
  • The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest
  • Argues that Trump’s business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal with voters

EDINBURGH: Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland’s northeastern coast rank among Donald Trump ‘s favorite spots on earth.

“At some point, maybe in my very old age, I’ll go there and do the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen,” Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire.

At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, traveling to Scotland on Friday as his family’s business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a new course it is billing as “the greatest 36 holes in golf.”

While there, Trump will talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a meeting he’s said will take place at “probably one of my properties.”

The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the president also plans to visit a Trump course near Turnberry, around 320 kilometers away on Scotland’s southwest coast.

Using this week’s presidential overseas trip – with its sprawling entourage of advisers, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters – to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family’s business interests.

The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that Trump’s business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal with voters.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a “working trip.” But she added that Trump “has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport.”

Trump family’s new golf course has tee times for sale

Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This time, his trip comes as the new golf course is about to debut and is already actively selling tee times.

It’s not cheap for the president to travel.

The helicopters that operate as Marine One when the president is on board cost between $16,700 and nearly $20,000 per hour to operate, according to Pentagon data for fiscal year 2022. The modified Boeing 747s that serve as the iconic Air Force One cost about $200,000 per hour to fly. That’s not to mention the military cargo aircraft that fly ahead of the president with his armored limousines and other official vehicles.

“We’re at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn’t seem to see much of a difference,” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president and spokesperson for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “It’s as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization.”

During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics frameworks for Trump’s second term allows them.

Trump’s assets are in a trust run by his children, who are also handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he’s in the White House. The company has inked many recent, lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the administration continues to negotiate tariff rates for those countries and around the globe.

Trump’s first Aberdeen course has sparked legal battles

Trump’s existing Aberdeenshire course, meanwhile, has a history nearly as rocky as the area’s cliffs.

It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump’s company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government’s legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers’ views.

And the development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals.

Trump’s company’s initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he’d be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged.

Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines – a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals.

Golfers-in-chief

Family financial interests aside, Trump isn’t the first sitting US president to golf in Scotland. That was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played in Turnberry in 1959. George W. Bush visited the famed course at Gleneagles in 2005 but didn’t play.

Many historians trace golf back to Scotland in the Middle Ages. Among the earliest known references to game was a Scottish Parliament resolution in 1457 that tried to ban it, along with soccer, because of fears both were distracting men from practicing archery – then considered vital to national defense.

The first US president to golf regularly was William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913 and ignored warnings from his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, that playing too much would make it seem like he wasn’t working hard enough.

Woodrow Wilson played nearly every day but Sundays, and even had the Secret Service paint his golf balls red so he could practice in the snow, said Mike Trostel, director of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Warren G. Harding trained his dog Laddie Boy to fetch golf balls while he practiced. Lyndon B. Johnson’s swing was sometimes described as looking like a man trying to kill a rattlesnake.

Bill Clinton, who liked to joke that he was the only president whose game improved while in office, restored a putting green on the White House’s South Lawn. It was originally installed by Eisenhower, who was such an avid user that he left cleat marks in the wooden floors of the Oval Office by the door leading out to it.

Bush stopped golfing after the start of the Iraq war in 2003 because of the optics. Barack Obama had a golf simulator installed in the White House that Trump upgraded during his first term, Trostel said.

John F. Kennedy largely hid his love of the game as president, but he played on Harvard’s golf team and nearly made a hole-in-one at California’s renowned Cypress Point Golf Club just before the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

“I’d say, between President Trump and President John F. Kennedy, those are two of the most skilled golfers we’ve had in the White House,” Trostel said.

Trump, Trostel said, has a handicap index – how many strokes above par a golfer is likely to score – of a very strong 2.5, though he’s not posted an official round with the US Golf Association since 2021. That’s better than Joe Biden’s handicap of 6.7, which also might be outdated, and Obama, who once described his own handicap as an “honest 13.”

The White House described Trump as a championship-level golfer but said he plays with no handicap.


Lebanese militant to be released after 40 years in French jail

Lebanese militant to be released after 40 years in French jail
Updated 18 min 54 sec ago

Lebanese militant to be released after 40 years in French jail

Lebanese militant to be released after 40 years in French jail
  • Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US, Israeli officials
  • He had been eligible for release since 1999, but his previous requests were denied as the United States consistently opposed him leaving prison

LANNEMEZAN, France: One of France’s longest-held inmates, the pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, will be released and deported on Friday, after more than 40 years behind bars for the killings of two diplomats.

At around 3:40 a.m. (01:30 GMT), a convoy of six vehicles left the Lannemezan penitentiary with lights flashing, AFP journalists saw, though they were unable to catch a glimpse of the 74-year-old grey-bearded prisoner.

Abdallah was detained in 1984 and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris.

The Paris Court of Appeal had ordered his release “effective July 25” on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.

He had been eligible for release since 1999, but his previous requests were denied as the United States – a civil party to the case – consistently opposed him leaving prison.

Inmates serving life sentences in France are typically freed after fewer than 30 years.

Once out of prison, Abdallah is set to be transported to the Tarbes airport where a police plane will take him to Roissy for a flight to Beirut, according to a source close to the case.

Abdallah’s lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, visited for a final time on Thursday. “He seemed very happy about his upcoming release, even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations,” Chalanset said.

AFP visited Abdallah last week after the court’s release decision, accompanying a lawmaker to the detention center.

The founder of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions (FARL) – a long-disbanded Marxist anti-Israel group – said for more than four decades he had continued to be a “militant with a struggle.”

After his arrest in 1984, French police discovered submachine guns and transceiver stations in one of his Paris apartments.

The appeals court in February noted that the FARL “had not committed a violent action since 1984” and that Abdallah “today represented a past symbol of the Palestinian struggle.”

The appeals judges also found the length of his detention “disproportionate” to the crimes and given his age.

Abdallah’s family said they plan to meet him at Beirut airport’s “honor lounge” before heading to their hometown of Kobayat in northern Lebanon where a reception is planned.


Thailand says over 100,000 civilians flee clashes with Cambodia

Thailand says over 100,000 civilians flee clashes with Cambodia
Updated 5 sec ago

Thailand says over 100,000 civilians flee clashes with Cambodia

Thailand says over 100,000 civilians flee clashes with Cambodia
  • Fighting took place after a land mine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers
  • UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged both sides “to exercise maximum restraint”

SURIN, Thailand: More than 100,000 people have fled the bloodiest border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in a decade, Bangkok said Friday, as the death toll rose and international powers urged a halt to hostilities.

A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later Friday.

The Thai interior ministry said more than 100,000 people from four border provinces had moved to nearly 300 temporary shelters, while the health ministry said the death toll had risen to 15 – 14 civilians and one soldier – with 46 wounded, including 15 troops.

Cambodian authorities have not released any casualty figures from their side.

In the Cambodian town of Samraong, 20 kilometers from the border, AFP journalists reported hearing distant artillery fire on Friday morning.

Evacuees take shelter in a hall on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University, in the Thai border province of Surin on July 24, 2025, amid fighting between Thail and Cambodian forces on July 24, 2025 over a disputed border zone. (AFP)

As the guns started up, some families packed their children and belongings into vehicles and sped away.

“I live very close to the border. We are scared because they began shooting again at about 6:00 am,” Pro Bak, 41, said.

He was taking his wife and children to a Buddhist temple to seek refuge.

“I don’t know when we could return home,” he said.

AFP journalists also saw soldiers rushing to man rocket launchers and speeding off toward the frontier.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose country currently holds the chair of regional bloc ASEAN, said he held talks with both countries PMs on Thursday and called for a ceasefire and dialogue.

“I welcome the positive signals and willingness shown by both Bangkok and Phnom Penh to consider this path forward,” he said in a Facebook post late on Thursday.

But despite Anwar’s optimism, fighting resumed in three areas around 4:00 am on Friday (2100 GMT Thursday), the Thai army said.

Cambodian forces carried out bombardments with heavy weapons, field artillery, and BM-21 rocket systems, the army said, and Thai troops responded “with appropriate supporting fire.”

The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbors – both popular destinations for millions of foreign tourists – over their shared 800-kilometer frontier.

Dozens of kilometers in several areas are contested and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash.

Fighting on Thursday was focused on six locations, according to the Thai army, including around two ancient temples.

Ground troops backed up by tanks battled for control of territory, while Cambodia fired rockets and shells into Thailand and the Thais scrambled F-16 jets to hit military targets across the border.

Both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket.

Thursday’s clashes came hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its own envoy after five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by a land mine.

Cambodia downgraded ties to “the lowest level” on Thursday, pulling out all but one of its diplomats and expelling their Thai equivalents from Phnom Penh.

At the request of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the deadly clashes, diplomatic sources said.

The United States urged an “immediate” end to the conflict, while Cambodia’s former colonial ruler France made a similar call.

The EU and China – a close ally of Phnom Penh – said they were “deeply concerned” about the clashes, calling for dialogue.


Risk highlighted as Chinese hackers hit Microsoft

Risk highlighted as Chinese hackers hit Microsoft
Updated 25 July 2025

Risk highlighted as Chinese hackers hit Microsoft

Risk highlighted as Chinese hackers hit Microsoft
  • Dutch startup Eye Security warned of online attacks targeting SharePoint file-sharing servers
  • Targets included government organizations in Europe, the Middle East and the US — among them the US nuclear weapons agency

PARIS : Software giant Microsoft is at the center of cybersecurity storm after China-linked hackers exploited flaws in SharePoint servers to target hundreds of organizations.
While such cyberattacks are not new, the scale of the onslaught and the speed with which the hackers took advantage of freshly discovered vulnerabilities is fueling concern.
Dutch startup Eye Security warned Saturday of online attacks targeting SharePoint file-sharing servers, with Microsoft quick to confirm the report and release patches to protect systems.
The vulnerability allowed hackers to retrieve credentials and then access SharePoint servers kept at users’ facilities, according to Microsoft.
Cloud-based SharePoint software was safe from the problem, the company said.

Eye Security determined that more than 400 computer systems were compromised by hackers during waves of attacks.
Targets included government organizations in Europe, the Middle East and the United States — among them the US nuclear weapons agency, media reports indicated.
“On-premises SharePoint deployments — particularly within government, schools, health care and large enterprise companies — are at immediate risk,” cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks warned in a note.
Microsoft has not disclosed the number of victims in the attacks.
SharePoint had more than 200 million active users as of 2020, according to the most recent figures available from Microsoft.

Microsoft has attributed the cyberattacks to groups backed by China.
The culprits are believed to include Chinese state actors known as Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon along with a group called Storm-2603 which “is considered with moderate confidence to be a threat actor based in China.”
The Typhoon groups have been active for a decade or more, and are known for intellectual property theft as well as espionage, according to Microsoft.
Less was known about Storm-2603 and its motives.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are ongoing,” Microsoft said, urging users to patch SharePoint servers to avoid becoming hacking victims.
Cybersecurity specialist Damien Bancal noted in a recent blog post that he found “ready-to-use exploit code” for the vulnerability at a popular website.

The assault on SharePoint servers is the latest in a series of sophisticated attacks carried out by state-sponsored groups against “the Microsoft ecosystem,” according to Bancal.
In 2021, attacks by a Chinese hacker group known as Silk Typhoon compromised tens of thousands of email servers using Microsft Exchange software.
Microsoft’s success at making its software commonplace in offices and homes also makes it a prime target for hackers out to steal money or information.
Microsoft software can hold sensitive and valuable information.
“It’s not Microsoft that is being targeted, it’s its customers,” said Shane Barney, head of information security at US-based Keeper.
Targeting Microsoft programs is a means to an end, and tomorrow it could be software from another company, said Rodrigue Le Bayon, head of Orange Cyberdefense computer emergency response team.

China is not the only nation backing hacker operations as countries around the world hone cyber capabilities, according to Le Bayon.
Nevertheless, China is repeatedly singled out by companies and goverments hit by hacks.
Western countries have accused hacker groups allegedly supported by China of conducting a global cyber espionage campaign against figures critical of Beijing, democratic institutions, and companies in various sensitive sectors.