The Russian hackers behind the SolarWinds campaign have escalated their attacks on U.S. federal agencies, think tanks and non-governmental organizations as part of intelligence gathering efforts on behalf of their government, Microsoft Corp. said late Thursday. In a blog post, Microsoft Vice President Tom Burt said this past week’s attack -- which is still ongoing -- granted access to about 3,000 email accounts at more than 150 organizations by infiltrating a digital marketing service used by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), called Constant Contact. The hackers distributed phishing emails, among them “Special Alerts,” declaring that former President Donald J. Trump had published new documents on election fraud, and inviting the user to view them. When clicked, a malicious file was inserted that the hackers could use to distribute a backdoor, granting the ability to steal data and infect other computers on the network. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake