Microsoft has attributed the ConnectWise supply chain attack to Storm-0940, a China-aligned hacking group that used autonomous AI agents to accelerate attempts to access Microsoft 365 customer environments. The attackers obtained credentials associated with ConnectWise cloud applications and attempted to authenticate to more than 2,250 Microsoft 365 tenants through access those applications had already been granted. In a threat intelligence report published on 21 October , Microsoft said the group had used the ARTEX agentic penetration-testing framework since at least September 2026. Its targets included organisations in the aerospace, automotive, energy, government, manufacturing and semiconductor industries. AI agents exploit trusted application credentials ARTEX is a multi-agent system that uses large language models to automate offensive security work, from reconnaissance and vulnerability discovery to exploitation. It has a Go backend and a Next.js interface and can work with different AI models. Although designed for penetration testing, the framework can be used to automate malicious activity with relatively little human intervention. Between 10 and 14 October, Microsoft observed a separate password-spraying campaign associated with Storm-0940 targeting 327 accounts at eight organisations. More than 151,000 authentication attempts failed, with a peak of 2,900 failures per minute. Microsoft found no successful authentication in that particular campaign. The ConnectWise supply chain attack used a different route. Instead of guessing user passwords, attackers authenticated as trusted third-party applications, bypassing the need for an interactive user sign-in. Microsoft observed follow-on Microsoft Graph operations in some tenants, including reconnaissance, credential changes and attempts to alter privileges. In several ARTEX-assisted attacks across the wider campaign, Storm-0940 obtained privileged cloud access within three hours of initial targeting. Microsoft cautioned that a successful application sign-in does not, by itself, establish that customer data was accessed or stolen. However, credentials added to other applications can preserve unauthorised access even after the original compromised connection has been disabled. ConnectWise supply chain attack disrupts backup services ConnectWise said it discovered unauthorised access on 14 October involving application identities for Cloud Backup, previously known as SkyKick. It suspended Cloud Backup and, because they share integrations, its SaaS Security and Cloud Management services. According to the company’s 23 October security update , restoration testing was expected to continue through the weekend, with access to existing backups potentially returning in phases the following week. The company says existing backup archives remain encrypted and isolated, with no indication of compromise. Individual Microsoft 365 tenants nevertheless require investigation for persistent credentials, unexpected privilege assignments and unauthorised activity. Microsoft’s guidance is to keep the affected application connections disabled until ConnectWise authorises their restoration, while preserving sign-in and audit records. The attack provides a specific example of AI speeding up established cybercrime techniques rather than introducing an entirely new route into organisations. The growing role of AI in attacks was also examined in earlier eeNews Europe reporting on AI-enabled data breaches . The post Microsoft links ConnectWise supply chain attack to AI agents appeared first on eeNews Europe .