The boss of Microsoft has called the SolarWinds hack the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen.
The cyber raid identified in December exposed data from thousands of Wall Street s top companies and a handful of government agencies including the Treasury, Justice and Commerce departments.
The hackers, which the CIA said were likely deployed by Russia, used SolarWinds Orion platform as an open door to break into the computer systems of its 18,000 customers. I think from a software engineering perspective, it s probably fair to say that this is the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen, Smith told 60 Minutes on CBS.
SolarWinds CEO reveals hackers had access to firm’s emails for at least NINE months
Suspected Russian hackers accessed at least one of company s Office 365 email accounts by as early as December 2019
Hackers moved to compromise other Office 365 accounts within SolarWinds, according to Solarwinds CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna
In late December, the nation s top security agencies were rocked by an unprecedented breach when it emerged SolarWinds had been hacked
US Navy admiral says nuclear war with Russia or China is a real possibility
Admiral Charles A. Richard heads the US Strategic Command - or STRATCOM
Richard accused Cold War-era foes of aggressively challenging global peace
He said Russia, China were taking advantage of pandemic to advance agendas
Richard cited SolarWinds cyber attack, which US intelligence blames on Russia
Russia has denied any involvement in the hack of US government agencies
China has also stepped up military presence in South China Sea
Richard noted Russia and China have bolstered their nuclear capabilities
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SolarWinds cybersecurity expert Ian Thornton-Trump warned the company in 2017 to improve its internal security to prevent a catastrophic hack
When his recommendations were ignored, he left the firm a month later
US officials say Russian hackers were behind the massive attack that affected more than 250 federal agencies and businesses
The hack is believed to have started as early as October 2019
Employees say SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson cut common security practices to save costs and his approach almost tripled SolarWinds annual profit margins
Some engineering offices were moved to Eastern Europe, where the Orion software, which was compromised by the hackers, was partially developed
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And Bill Harris has said the attack, which he blamed on the Russian hacking collective Cozy Bear, said rather than bullets and tanks, future wars would be fought with high-speed computers. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said on Wednesday the sprawling cyber espionage campaign made public earlier this month is affecting state and local governments, although it released few additional details.