Microsoft Discovers BPOS Cloud Data Breach

If outages weren’t bad enough, Microsoft has confirmed that an issue with the BPOS cloud suite’s offline address book function has led to the improper downloading of company data. While the issue was resolved within two hours of discovery, the glitch won’t generate confidence as Microsoft prepares to switch partners and customers from BPOS to the forthcoming Office 365.

First, TalkinCloud credits ComputerWorld and Dutch publication Webwereld for early coverage on the BPOS data breach.

The offline address book is essentially a company’s contact directory for employees – and a breach in BPOS data centers worldwide prompted an apparently small number of improper downloads. When Microsoft found out, it let all BPOS partners and customers know.

Microsoft also stressed that nothing like e-mails, personal information, or anything else that a company might not want leaked got out. But this is still a serious issue, small-scale or no. And it may well shake some confidence in Microsoft’s cloud.

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