On Sunday, Reuters reported that a ‘sophisticated' group of hackers believed to have been ‘backed by a foreign government' had breached the networks of the US Treasury Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, with similar attacks reportedly targeting other government agencies.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), America's top cybersecurity entity, issued an emergency directive asking all federal civilian agencies and their public and private partners to stop using products by SolarWinds, an Austin-based network management company providing networking monitoring services to a slew of US government agencies, private entities, and corporations.
“The compromise of SolarWinds' Orion Network Management Products poses unacceptable risks to the security of federal networks,” Brandon Wales, CISA acting director, said in a statement released late Sunday.
“Tonight's directive is intended to mitigate potential compromises within federal civilian networks, and we urge all our partners –in the public and private sectors – to assess their exposure to this compromise and to secure their networks against any exploitation,” Wales added.
CISA provided no further information regarding the hacks, who it suspects to be responsible, or what information has been stolen.
However, the Washington Post reported Sunday that Cozy Bear, a hacking group allegedly linked with Russian military…
