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Amid the silence of the defeated US president, Donald Trump, and the winning president in the November elections, Joe Biden’s threat that he will not sit idly by in the face of cyberattacks against the United States, increases the number of victims daily of the cyberattack to the most prominent US agencies.
The danger of the breach comes not only because it is the largest in U.S. history, but because U.S. law enforcement agencies failed to uncover this breach, which was launched about 9 months ago, allowing it to spread to the Most of the government agencies and it reached the US Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
Biden: I will not sit idly by in the face of cyber attacks
According to the information available so far, the attack, which probably began last March, was carried out by hacking into the SolarWinds company in Texas, which makes monitoring programs used by government agencies, and then the malware was passed onto government networks. , during modernization processes. Programs. The attacks are also attributed, according to the “Washington Post”, to the group “ATP29”, which has the backing of Russia, and is also responsible for the attacks on the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States in 2016, Hillary Clinton .
Yesterday Friday, the Politico website quoted US officials familiar with the hacking operation, which has affected federal ministries and agencies, as saying that the US Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the reserves of the country’s nuclear weapons, have evidence that hackers have managed to penetrate. Your electronic networks. The site indicated that suspicious activity was found on the networks of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, and the Richland field office of the Ministry of Energy. Officials said the damage to the grid belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was greater than in other government agencies.
Officials noted that, in recent days, federal investigators have reviewed networks to determine what information hackers were able to access and what was stolen. They explained that Energy Ministry officials still do not know if the pirates were able to access anything, indicating that the investigation is continuing and it is possible that they did not know the extent of the damage “weeks ago.” And “Politico” quoted a spokeswoman for the US Department of Energy, Shailene Haynes, as saying that the investigation into the breach found that the perpetrators did not have access to defense systems. “At this stage, the investigation found that the malware was targeting commercial networks only and did not affect the ministry’s core national security functions, including the National Nuclear Security Administration,” it added in a statement. “When the energy ministry identified the programs at risk, immediate steps were taken to mitigate the risks,” he said.
Romney compared the breach to the Russian bombers flying over all of America.
Microsoft on Friday said it had detected malware on its systems linked to a large-scale cyberattack uncovered by US officials, adding a major technology target to a growing list of government agencies that have come under fire. Microsoft uses “Orion” software, a widely used network management software produced by Solar Windows, which was used in the attacks. A company spokesperson said, “Like other SolarWinds customers, we were actively seeking evidence from the author,” confirming that malware had been detected and that Microsoft had isolated and removed it. “Microsoft” stated that the list includes security and technology organizations and non-governmental organizations, in addition to government targets. It indicated that 80 percent of the attacks it recorded were carried out in the United States of America.
The Cybersecurity Unit of the US Department of Homeland Security said yesterday that the breach “represents a great threat to federal, state, local and regional governments, as well as vital infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations.” These were the most detailed comments yet from the Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Agency since reports emerged last Sunday that government agencies, including Treasury and Commerce departments, were among the agencies whose secure data and email had been seen. committed. The Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Agency warns that malware introduced through developer programs will be difficult to remove. It stated that removing the threat factor from vulnerable environments would be extremely complex and challenging.
Although US officials accused Russia of being behind the cyber attack, Trump was silent about the largest breach in the history of the United States of America. This silence opens the door for Trump to let the Biden administration decide how to respond. The day before yesterday, he provided initial indications on how to respond. The Associated Press reported that the response could be in the form of sanctions or a cyber attack. Biden said the hacking campaign is “of great concern.” Biden, who will become president on January 20, announced that his team would make fighting this campaign a top priority. He added, in a statement, “Our opponents must know that I, as president, will not stand idly by in the face of cyber attacks on our nation.”
Foreign Policy magazine reported that the hacking operation may be the worst in US history. He quoted Senator Angus King as saying, “So far, I think this is the worst cyber attack the country has faced in its history.” Republican Senator Mitt Romney likened this gap to “Russian bombers flying over our entire country over and over again.” He denounced “the inexcusable silence and inaction on the part of the White House.” It should be noted that the official US data does not yet mention Russia by name.
For its part, the magazine “Newsweek” spoke about the well-known networks that have been hacked. Solar Winds reported that it had identified some 18,000 customers who may have been exposed to piracy. He noted that experts fear that hackers have stolen sensitive information, or that they destroy and falsify government data, warning that fixing this issue could take years. The company indicated that its software is used by all branches of the United States armed forces and the Epidemic Control Center. And externally, there are “MasterCard” and the Gates Organization, and other organizations.
On December 13, Reuters reported that hackers were apparently monitoring internal email traffic associated with the US Treasury and Commerce. The New York Times reported on December 14 that administration officials confirmed that the Departments of State and Homeland Security and some Pentagon-affiliated networks had apparently compromised.
(Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Reuters, Associated Press)
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