US Cyberattack: More than 50 Companies Suffer A Massive Breach

FireEye, the cybersecurity firm responsible for finding out about the massive hacking campaign against the US government says that 50 organizations have suffered major breaches from the attack. According to BBC, "Several other organizations around the world, including in the UK, are understood to have been targeted by hackers using the same network management software." FireEye CEO, Kevin Mandia said a total of 18,000 organizations had suffered an attack, out of which 50 have suffered a major data breach. 

Among the targets include DHS(Department of Homeland Security), The US Treasury, and state and defenses.  Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, says Russia is responsible for the attack. Whereas former US President Donald Trump suspects China behind the cyberattacks. Trump took to Twitter last Saturday and said that he believes China is responsible for the attack against the US. According to FireEye, the hacking breach is very serious and consistent. The US officials believe that the attack is the work of SVR, a Russian foreign intelligence agency. 

According to Mr. Mandia, these might be the same hackers that the US encountered in the 90s and the early 2000s. It all started when the hackers breached SolarWinds Orion, a Texas-based firm. In the SolarWinds supply chain hack, a "big" telecommunications company, various government organizations, and a fortune 500 company have been the targets of the breaches. The news comes a day after Microsoft agreed that it had informed its 40 customers of a breach in its Defender antivirus software. Mr. Pompeo has a firm belief that Russia is engaged with this activity. He alleges Russia for undermining the US government and says Russian President Putin is the real risk. 

"Hackers managed to gain access to major organizations by compromising network management software developed by the Texas-based IT company SolarWinds," reports BBC news. The access could have allowed the hackers to take a high degree of control over the networks of organizations using that software, but appears to have been used to steal data rather than for any disruptive or destructive impact, it further says.

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