Homeland Security and thousands of businesses ‘hacked by Russians’ after attack on US Treasury and other fed agencies
HOMELAND Security and thousands of businesses were revealed to have been hacked in what security officials believe to be an orchestrated attack by Russia.
Emails sent by department officials were monitored by hackers in a series of sophisticated breaches against the department, which oversees border security and hacking defense.
The hackers also targeted the Treasury Department and Commerce Departments, it was reported on Monday.
Other departments, like the Department of Defense and Department of State, as well as the National Institute of Health, also reported parts of their systems were hacked.
"For operational security reasons the DoD will not comment on specific mitigation measures or specify systems that may have been impacted," a Pentagon spokesperson Reuters.
Hackers initially used SolarWinds, a technology company that said up to 18,000 of its customers had downloaded a software that allowed hackers to spy into their businesses and agencies for over nine months.
The warning came after it was reported that supposed Russian hackers had infiltrated SolarWinds software updates to enter multiple government agencies in the United States.
has since denied having any connection to the United States.
The “sophisticated” also had free access to their email systems, reports said.
It remains unclear if the systems contained highly classified material – and sources told the Times that the motive behind hacking the agencies was also uncertain.
The outlet reported that the attack appears to be the largest on federal systems in the past five years and officials only became aware of it in recent weeks.
Krebs, who oversaw CISA, was responsible for leading the effort to protect U.S. elections.
Microsoft Office 365 can be compromised due to the attack, according to the publishing online community.
“This was a sniper shot that got through,” the source said.
Following the attack, FireEye began working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Microsoft, and other companies in the cybersecurity industry on a probe into the attack.
The FBI that the Russian military intelligence agency linked with hacking Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign has unleashed malware to spy on US computers.
Called Drovorub, the bug allows the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, known as GRU, to target Linux computers, allowing Russian agents to spy on infected machines, .
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The GRU is considered an elite group within the Russian military – whose head reports directly to President Vladimir Putin.
The Washington Post reported that SVR, unlike the GRU, hacks "for traditional espionage purposes."