Microsoft said it has taken control of the servers that a China-based hacking group was using to compromise targets that align with that country’s geopolitical interests. The hacking group, which Microsoft has called Nickel, has been in Microsoft’s cross hair since at least 2016, and the software company has been tracking the now-disrupted intelligence-gathering campaign since 2019. The attacks, against government agencies, think tanks and humans Human rights organizations in the US and 28 other countries – were “highly sophisticated,” Microsoft said, and used a variety of techniques, including exploiting vulnerabilities in software that targets had yet to patch ....