Microsoft Azure

Update at 6/9/23 1:33 PM ET added below

The Microsoft Azure Portal is down on the web as a threat actor known as Anonymous Suda claims to be targeting the site with a DDoS attack.

Attempting to access the portal at https://portal.azure.com displays an error message stating, "Our services aren't available right now. We're working to restore all services as soon as possible. Please check back soon." The mobile app appears unaffected at this time.

Error message when visiting portal.azure.com
Error message when visiting portal.azure.com
Source: BleepingComputer

The Microsoft Azure status page includes status information stating that Microsoft is aware of the incident and are attempting to mitigate it.

"Azure Portal - Errors accessing the Azure Portal - Applying Mitigation

Impact Statement: Starting at approximately 15:00 UTC on 9 Jun 2023, Azure customers may experience error notifications when trying to access the Azure Portal (portal.azure.com).

Current Status: We have determined a potential root cause and are actively engaged in different workstreams applying load balancing processes in order to mitigate the issue. The next update will be provided within 60 minutes or as events warrant.

This message was last updated at 16:35 UTC on 09 June 2023" 

At the same time, a threat actor known as Anonymous Sudan claims to be conducting a DDoS attack against the Microsoft Azure portal, sharing an image of the page not working.

Telegram post by Anonymous Sudan
Source: BleepingComputer

Anonymous Sudan claims to be a hacktivist targeting US companies to protest the United States' involvement in Sudanese internal affairs. However, some believe this is a false flag and that the threat actors are actually Russian.

Regardless of the threat actor's origins, this has not been a good week for Microsoft, with the threat actor conducting DDoS attacks on other Microsoft web portals for Outlook.com and OneDrive, which also suffered outages at the same time.

While Microsoft has not confirmed that these outages were due to DDoS attacks, they did share the following statement with BleepingComputer yesterday, hinting that the issues are more than just a technical problem.

"We are aware of these claims and are investigating. We are taking the necessary steps to protect customers and ensure the stability of our services," Microsoft told BleepingComputer in a statement.

BleepingComputer has once again contacted Microsoft to ask if the services are down due to a DDoS attack, but a response was not immediately available.

Update 6/9/23 1:32 PM ET: The Azure portal appears to be live again and stable.

Microsoft has still not disclosed the underlying cause for the outage, only indicating that they applied more load balancing proccesses to the service.

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