The US officials have confirmed that hackers have broken into federal agencies’ networks, including the Treasury and Commerce departments. The officials had warned that malicious actors linked to Russia were exploiting vulnerabilities to target sensitive data. In this article at CNN, Brian Fung and Alex Marquardt explain everything about government networks’ hacking.
A Possible Culprit
The security personnel spotted the hacks just days after major cybersecurity firm FireEye disclosed that foreign government hackers had broken into its network and stolen the company’s hacking tools. Though the US government did not publicly identify Russia as the culprit, many cybersecurity experts suspect the Russian-affiliated group is responsible for the attack. Experts opine that Russia has maintained a steady, aggressive cyber campaign against both the US public and private sectors.
In the earlier weeks, the National Security Agency published an advisory warning that Russian-state-sponsored hackers accessed data on protected systems. The agency also called for various government networks, including the Defense department’s network, to be patched immediately.
Steps Taken By Government
Experts believe that these sorts of attacks leveraging trusted relationships are complicated to detect and defend against in real-time. According to officials, the government is taking all necessary steps to identify any possible issues related to this situation. Further, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is currently working with other agencies to identify and mitigate potential compromises.
Impact of the Hack
This is not the first time government networks have been targeted, and the result can have a long-term effect on government functioning. The compromise is critical because it would give a hacker access to a network, making sensitive information visible.
To read the original article, click on https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/13/politics/us-agencies-investigating-hacking-data-breach/index.html.
