(Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. said it will tell users of itse-mail and cloud storage services when government-backed hackers mayhave targeted them.

The policy expands on existing procedures where Microsoft tellsusers if they believe an account has been targeted or compromisedby a third party, Corporate Vice President Scott Charney wrote in ablog post Wednesday.

"We're taking this additional step of specifically letting youknow if we have evidence that the attacker may be 'state-sponsored' because it is likely that the attack could be moresophisticated or more sustained than attacks from cybercriminalsand others," Charney wrote. "We do not plan on providing detailedor specific information about the attackers or their methods."

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Microsoft, whose Internet services include Outlook.com e-mailand OneDrive online storage, joins rivals including Google Inc. inadvising customers when they suspect state-sponsored groupsattacked their accounts. Countries seeking access to personalcommunications often use anti-terrorism efforts orprotecting national security as motives.

Google's Gmail service warned former U.S. diplomatWilliam Stanton that state-sponsored attackers may have attemptedto access his account, Bloomberg News reported last month, citingStanton. That warning didn't name the country, though Stanton saidhe believes he's a target of Chinese attacks because of his formerjob, akin to the U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, and his current role asan academic at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University.

U.K. proposal

The U.S. Congress in June passed a bill curbing the NationalSecurity Agency's power to collect phone calls, part of a backlashagainst state spying highlighted after revelations by former NSAcontractor Edward Snowden about U.S. government monitoring ofelectronic communications.

Apple Inc. is among the global technology companies that havepublicly pushed back against government attempts to access personalcommunications, saying a proposed U.K. surveillance law wouldweaken privacy and isn't justified by national securitythreats.

"The creation of back doors and intercept capabilities wouldweaken the protections built into Apple products and endanger allour customers," Apple said in a submission to the U.K. parliamentthis month. "A key left under the doormat would not just be therefor the good guys. The bad guys would find it too."

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