HPE hacked by same Russian intelligence group that hit Microsoft
Antonio Neri, president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, speaks during the HPE Discover CIO Summit in Las Vegas on June 19, 2018.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Hewlett Packard Enterprise said Wednesday that its cloud-based email system was compromised by the Russian state-sponsored hacking group known as Midnight Blizzard or Cozy Bear.
The enterprise tech giant revealed the hack in a regulatory filing, saying it was notified in December 2023 that “the threat actor accessed and exfiltrated data beginning in May 2023 from a small percentage of HPE mailboxes belonging to individuals in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, business segments, and other functions.”
HPE said it is still investigating the hack, which it believes was related to another incident that occurred in June 2023. During that event, the hackers managed to compromise “a limited number of SharePoint files as early as May 2023,” HPE wrote in the filing.
“Following the notice in June, we immediately investigated with the assistance of external cybersecurity experts and took containment and remediation measures intended to eradicate the activity,” the company wrote. “Upon undertaking such actions, we determined that such activity did not materially impact the Company.”
HPE said it is working with law enforcement and will provide regulatory notifications if required as the investigation proceeds. So far, HPE said the hack “has not had a material impact” and that it “has not determined the incident is reasonably likely to materially impact” its financial health or operations.
Earlier in January, Microsoft said the hacking group, which is also referred to as Nobelium or APT29, compromised some of the email accounts of its high-ranking executives. In 2020, the same Russian intelligence-linked hacking group also conducted the infamous breach of government supplier SolarWinds.
Both the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Microsoft have previously linked the state-sponsored hacking group with the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR.
Microsoft and HPE’s disclosure of their respective breaches by the Russian-linked hacking group follows newly enacted U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules requiring companies to disclose material cybersecurity incidents.
HPE shares were flat in after-hours trading Wednesday at $15.76.
Watch: Microsoft hack could’ve been the start of a “pretty significant campaign.”
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said Shengjia Zhao, the co-creator of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will serve as the chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Zuckerberg has been on a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hiring blitz in recent weeks, highlighted by a $14 billion investment in Scale AI. In June, Zuckerberg announced a new organization called Meta Superintelligence Labs that’s made up of top AI researchers and engineers.
Zhao’s name was listed among other new hires in the June memo, but Zuckerberg said Friday that Zhao co-founded the lab and “has been our lead scientist from day one.” Zhao will work directly with Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who is acting as Meta’s chief AI officer.
“Shengjia has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field,” Zuckerberg wrote in a social media post. “I’m looking forward to working closely with him to advance his scientific vision.”
In addition to co-creating ChatGPT, Zhao helped build OpenAI’s GPT-4, mini models, 4.1 and o3, and he previously led synthetic data at OpenAI, according to Zuckerberg’s June memo.
Meta Superintelligence Labs will be where employees work on foundation models such as the open-source Llama family of AI models, products and Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research projects.
The social media company will invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” into AI compute infrastructure, Zuckerberg said earlier this month.
“The next few years are going to be very exciting!” Zuckerberg wrote Friday.
WATCH: Meta announces massive ‘Prometheus’ & ‘Hyperion’ data center plans
Technology
Palantir joins list of 20 most valuable U.S. companies, with stock more than doubling in 2025
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, speaks on a panel titled Power, Purpose, and the New American Century at the Hill and Valley Forum at the U.S. Capitol on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
Palantir has hit another major milestone in its meteoric stock rise. It’s now one of the 20 most valuable U.S. companies.
The provider of software and data analytics technology to defense agencies saw its stock rise more than 2% on Friday to another record, lifting the company’s market cap to $375 billion, which puts it ahead of Home Depot and Procter & Gamble. The company’s market value was already higher than Bank of America and Coca-Cola.
Palantir has more than doubled in value this year as investors ramp up bets on the company’s artificial intelligence business and closer ties to the U.S. government. Since its founding in 2003 by Peter Thiel, CEO Alex Karp and others, the company has steadily accrued a growing list of customers.
Revenue in Palantir’s U.S. government business increased 45% to $373 million in its most recent quarter, while total sales rose 39% to $884 million. The company next reports results on Aug. 4.
Earlier this year, Palantir soared ahead of Salesforce, IBM and Cisco into the top 10 U.S. tech companies by market cap.
Buying the stock at these levels requires investors to pay hefty multiples. Palantir currently trades for 273 times forward earnings, according to FactSet. The only other company in the top 20 with a triple-digit ratio is Tesla at 175.
With $3.1 billion in total revenue over the past year, Palantir is a fraction the size of the next smallest company by sales among the top 20 by market cap. Mastercard, which is valued at $518 billion, is closest with sales over the past four quarters of roughly $29 billion.
WATCH: Palantir’s Mike Gallagher: Enforcing a ceasefire will require a greater investment of American power
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