‘It’s going to take a lot of digging’: The Pentagon’s long search to see if anyone’s hiding in its networks
December 17, 2020
The Pentagon's investigation of whether hackers infiltrated its networks in the SolarWinds breach will be difficult. (JuSun/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The military and intelligence community is scrambling to conduct a daunting hunt across disconnected networks to assess potential damage from an extensive federal cybersecurity breach by suspected Russian hackers.
As it searches for lurkers, one complicating factor is that the cybersecurity arm of the Department of Homeland Security warned Thursday that hackers used other means to access government and business networks beyond a software platform from contractor SolarWinds, used by the Pentagon, the military and intelligence offices. That network management platform was “not the only initial infection vector,” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency alert said.