Microsoft AI researchers mistakenly leak 38TB of data

Microsoft assures that no customer data was part of the leak.

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Microsoft has been a major player in AI ever since it started to gain traction in the industry. The company has invested millions of dollars into artificial intelligence, and has a team dedicated to researching and making advancements in AI tech. Their operations led to an unfortunate blunder this week when Microsoft AI research accidentally leaked a whopping 38TB of company data.

The massive data leak from Microsoft was first spotted by Wiz on Github, and Microsoft posted an official statement shortly thereafter. The leak apparently happened inadvertently while researchers were trying to upload open-source code that would help other researchers train AI models. Among the information leaked was “passwords to Microsoft services, secret keys, and over 30,000 internal Microsoft Teams messages from 359 Microsoft employees.” In Microsoft’s statement, the company assures customers that the leaks did not include any of their sensitive information.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Source: Getty Images

Microsoft also explained how a Shared Access Signature (SAS) token lead to the leak and how this situation will help them avoid similar leaks in the future.

In an unfortunate twist of irony, this isn’t even the only notable Microsoft leak in the span of 24 hours. Last night, a massive Xbox leak revealed documents and emails pertaining to the inner workings at Microsoft’s gaming division. This included images of an upcoming refresh of the Xbox Series X, several unannounced games from Bethesda Softworks, and an email in which Phil Spencer expressed interest in acquiring Nintendo.

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Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 19, 2023 1:30 PM

    Donovan Erskine posted a new article, Microsoft AI researchers mistakenly leak 38TB of data

    • reply
      September 19, 2023 1:37 PM

      Good bot

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      September 19, 2023 6:22 PM

      Good that "no customer data was exposed" but wow that is a massive amount of data. Makes me wonder how much data capacity Azure has.

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        September 20, 2023 4:53 AM

        I knew a very smart man who was convinced the only reason for “AI” is excess compute in data centers. According to him, whom has worked with Microsoft in particular, the amount of compute and storage they have available for their own devices is utterly obscene because they’re always building more for their potential customers, but they don’t always grow in a linear line, so any extra they use for research and there is a fuckload of it.

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      September 19, 2023 6:31 PM

      They’re having quite the leaky day

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      September 20, 2023 5:09 AM

      Artificial Information

    • reply
      September 20, 2023 5:39 AM

      Oopsies!

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