Microsoft Probes Clue That Hackers Cracked Taiwan Research (1)

Microsoft Corp. is investigating whether hackers who attacked its email system exploited the findings of Taiwanese researchers who were the first to alert the software company to the vulnerabilities, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

DEVCORE, a small firm based in Taipei City that specializes in discovering computer security flaws, in December said it found bugs affecting Microsoft’s widely used Exchange business email software. Then in late February, Microsoft notified DEVCORE that it was close to releasing security patches to fix the problem.

In the days after Microsoft disclosed its still secret patch to DEVCORE, attackers escalated ...