Living in a digital era has its perks, but it definitely has its consequences too. The scare of getting attacked by cybercriminals is legitimate and all types of organizations, as well as individuals, can become a target of cybercrime anytime. Cybercriminals need just one chance to get into the system, but huge enterprises like government organizations have to stay vigilant about their systems all the time because it can affect them on a very drastic level. Unfortunately, the US government and some of its major branches got hacked, leaving a lot of Americans, companies, and even government secrets all compromised.
The way this cyberattack has been organized, it seems that it is a proper state-organized attack, and the Russian government is currently in the line of suspicion. However, it is not confirmed along with the damage that it incurred.
The breach happened through a vulnerability in the Orion software by SolarWinds.
SolarWinds is a famous software company and their software, Orion is used in almost all the government agencies, not only in America but on a very extensive, global scale. It has more than 300,000 customers all around the world, and all five branches of the American military, the Pentagon, the President’s Office, and the State Department of the US all use this Orion networking tool. Now all of these departments are breached, and their information is hacked.
As per the initial findings, it seems that the hackers penetrated the federal computers through a very unique and complicated malware that was attached with the Orion updates around the period of March and June 2020. This was a very sophisticated and extremely precise attack and on such a large scale.
Orion software allows the computer departments and IT people to access computers on corporate networks remotely. So, the attackers hacked a sensitive software that led them into all the systems, letting them monitor internal conversations, compromising state secrets and all the data of citizens and thousands of organizations all breached. This is a very critical situation, and all the US agencies are at a high alert because of this attack.
Now, all the other organizations that use Orion software and had it updated around the same period may have this vulnerability too. So, all the users of SolarWinds’ Orion software have been alerted.
A lot of UK government departments also use this software, and they are also on high alert now.
FireEye, the US cybersecurity firm also had its hacking tools stolen a week ago.
This attack seems to be in line with the cyberattack on a cybersecurity firm, FireEye that had its hacking tools stolen last week. Now, it seems that the attack on the US federal agencies is also to hack into America’s hacking and defense tools. For all we know, this is probably a sign that a cold Cybertech war is on its way! Hacking the hacking tools and defenses of America is an extremely intrusive and a very serious matter.
Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency along with FBI and UK’s intelligence are all looking into this matter for further investigations.
As per immediate orders, all the devices in federal systems that use SolarWinds products have been deactivated until further notice.
I’m Ava Paul, an experienced news website author with a special focus on the entertainment section. Over the past five years, I have worked in various positions of media and communication at World Stock Market. My experience has given me extensive knowledge in writing, editing, researching and reporting on stories related to the entertainment industry.
