Hack of a Decade: The Complexity of US cyber-attack

Photo Source: forbes.com

US government cyber experts are running against time to identify those individuals responsible in the recent sweeping cyber-attacks. The experts are also seeking to identify the information that has been gathered from various networks by the hackers.

Experts are also figuring out which federal systems have been intruded in the far-reaching cyber-espionage assault. Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) issued a stark warning indicating that the ‘critical infrastructure’ had been destroyed and federal agencies compromised. 

Key federal agencies, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, were reportedly targeted in a spate of cyber-attack. The extensive wave of cyber intrusion was announced by the US government.

At least six US government Departments, which includes Commerce, Treasury, Energy, The National Nuclear Security Administration and state departments have been affected. The attackers are not yet known. However, US officials who talked to the media allegedly linked Russia to the attack.

Giant tech firms such as Microsoft have not been spared in the ongoing cyber-attacks. The attack poses a grave risk to data integrity and privacy. However, US President Donald Trump is still silent on the matter.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged a tougher reprisal to the attackers once he is sworn in, but failed to offer any specifics. The ongoing attack is a continuation of the initial cyber assault that began on March when Orion software made by SolarWinds was stolen. Orion was designed to provide network monitoring and other practical services to a number of organizations and companies around the world.

The malware code that was snuck into the updates enabled hackers to have a remote access to organization’s networks and steal vital data. The hackers have been able to extract information from their targets thus giving them the privilege of monitoring emails and other internal communications.

At least 18,000 Orion software users downloaded updates which contained the malicious software installed by Cyber intruders. In the wake of the attack, all US federal Civilian agencies were directed to remove SolarWinds from their servers.