The U.S. Government Suspect Russia For Hacking Its Federal Agencies And Other Businesses

Lately, the occurrence of cyber-attacks has been frequent in the U.S. – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), other businesses and government agencies have been victims of such distress. However, due to the immense response of security protocols and investigations, the U.S. security officials believe that the Russian government orchestrated the attack.

The hackers responsible for the attacks are reported to have been stalking the activities of the DHS, especially the ones that involved defense mechanism in countering hackers and the border security – hackers infiltrated the DHS with series of sophisticated tools, phishing emails issued by an official representing DHS is one of their tactics.

Aside from the DHS, other Federal agencies were also hit by the attackers – the New York Times reports disclosed the agencies which include U.S. departments of Treasury and Commerce, selected sections in the Defence Department, State Department and National Institutes of Health amongst others are victims of the recent cyberattack in the States. Neither of the executives representing these agencies is out to comment on the matters.

An undisclosed spokesman from Pentagon said “For operational security reasons the DoD will not comment on specific mitigation measures or specify systems that may have been impacted.”

Hackers seem to be getting smarter with the means to which they infiltrate a network undetected. The hackers went through the length of bugging SolarWinds latest software version – that has recorded over 18,000 active users using its compromised software. This trick allowed the hackers stealthy to monitor the activities of security agencies, businesses, and the medical institutions for months, since the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

On Sunday, the U.S. government declared that SolarWind’s software technology has been compromised and serves as a threat to its national security, thereby all government agencies are expected to disconnect from the malicious software.

However, the Russia government refused to comment about the issue and denied the allegations of orchestrating the cyber espionage.

The DHS cybersecurity division uses a sophisticated firewall to protect its infrastructure (health institute, electoral commission, security agencies etc. The recent elections are reported to have been free off unauthorized interference by hackers. DHS is also known to be responsible for the safe distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

SolarWind has been conducting a series of investigations about the data breach that has been active since March of 2020 monitoring its activities. The software technology company believes that a government-sponsored the cyber-attack to have accessed such sophisticated tools that uploaded malicious codes into its Orion network management software,

SolarWind said “the actual number of customers that may have had an installation of the Orion products that contained this vulnerability to be fewer than 18,000,” although the software technology company did not further disclose other organizations that are victims of the cyber attack.

Experts label the software technology company as unprofessional for saying that their database was breached unawares. As a professional, it is mandatory to give an accurate account of the vulnerabilities of its products. In resolving the issue, SolarWind has consorted with U.S. law enforcement as-well-as other cybersecurity professionals.

The cyber attack the software technology company encountered seems to be delicate as to diminishing its reputation – SolarWind has over 300,000 active global users.

Security experts believe that SolarWind should develop another countermeasure to block all the trails the hackers installed rather than discounting the network management program. In contrast, the attackers can be smarter than using the software company as a bypass to access a network and then create its backdoor. This fact gave SolarWind customers a reason to panic while searching for trails that prove the presence of an active hacking activity while aggressively hunting the hackers.