The U.S. Was Hacked for MONTHS, Here’s What We Know So Far

In December of 2020, US cybersecurity firm FireEye detected a cyber attack on an unprecedented scale. This leaves us to ask, how did the attack happen, and what will it take to recover?

The U.S. has an ongoing contentious relationship with Russia in cyberspace. Each country has access to the other’s power grid, and Russian intelligence is credited with breaking into the email servers of the White House, State Department, and Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2014 and 2015.

So, when news of the latest intrusion broke, federal authorities and cybersecurity experts named Russia as the most likely culprit. Russia for its part denies any involvement. You may be wondering how the hackers managed to gain access to such a wide breadth of networks, including those of the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Commerce, Energy, and State.

While multiple vendors that work with the U.S. government like Microsoft were attacked, most of the affected networks we know about so far can be traced to a Texas-based company called SolarWinds. SolarWinds provides network monitoring and management tools. Its flagship software, called Orion, is used by over 33,000 companies.

#russia #russianhackers USHack #hackers #cybersecurity #seeker #science #elements

Read More:

Hacked U.S. government networks will need to be burned “down to the ground”
"It’s not known exactly what the hackers were seeking, but experts say it could include nuclear secrets, blueprints for advanced weaponry and information for dossiers on key government and industry leaders. That means many federal workers — and others in the private sector — will have to presume that unclassified networks are teeming with spies."

SolarWinds: company at the core of the Orion hack falls under scrutiny
"SolarWinds estimated in a financial filing that about 18,000 customers had installed the compromised software, meaning many of them were vulnerable to spy operations at some time this year."

An Unprecedented Look at Stuxnet, the World's First Digital Weapon
"Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm that came before. Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it escaped the digital realm to wreak physical destruction on equipment the computers controlled."

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[MotorCityPhoenix]

Let's be honest. The true damage of the attack will never be made public lol.

[catalinacurio]

An issue when the hack is obvious but Social Media refuses to address the problem.

[Intercaust]

"Russia denies any involvement."
Yeah, imagine that.

[_percent]

Welcome to the comment section we have blankets, warm milk, and cookies!

[Aragorn]

Yeah, but can this 'Einstein' system run *Crysis?*

[piyushpatil]

Cyberwar, Cyberattack, Cyberpunk Its our future, so going to be a part of it by learning Computer Science.

[kholozondi]

"Russia and the US. Each county has access to the others power grid." I'm sorry what?? So we can just turn off each other's national electricity.... huh. Cool I guess?

[dalaibrahim]

this is why i’m majoring in computer science lmao

[nocultist]

You should ask yourself a question CIA is asking: What did we not detect?

[mexico]

What makes them so sure that it was Russia and not China? I missed that part.

[BluefootOnEire]

There’s isn’t a discernible reason why Russia would attack solar winds; China on the other hand has several.

[brianstarr]

Glad to see Seeker reporting on cybersecurity. Keep them coming on this topic.
I've read the source code on this hack. The hackers had privileged access to the original source and really tried to be stealth. They did multiple checks and talked to their command and control servers at random times. They even made the traffic look like valid Solar Winds data. Microsoft pulled the plug on the domains they were using thus ending the hack. But like you reported they were in for 9 months.
Scary stuff. How many other hacks have we missed via this type of vulnerability?

[laner]

US government should call their network Elmer Fudd instead of Einstein, be a more accurate name.

[ricardodelzealandia]

I love it when shows talk about hackers and then show someone developing a basic mobile application! Fail! :-)

[Hawkenwhacker]

Why would the US want to have safeguards in place? That's just bad business.

[BIGJATPSU]

I like when @Seeker has Amanda give us terrible news, then it just sounds awful, not terrible. 😂

[yourfriend]

So pretty much it was solar wind's fault for not implementing a security that checks on software implimitaions... oh brother...

[fix_]

Can you really say bad actor, I mean 9 months is a whole Lotta of time

[milos]

Not a fan of Russian state but in all honesty the U.S.A. is as active as Russian federation when it comes to hacking.

[batencheetos]

Russia, Russia, Russia. Probably China.