NEW YORK, October 7. / TASS /. The hackers responsible for the cyberattack on SolarWinds a year ago may have carried out a new series of attacks on the websites of US federal agencies as early as 2021. This was reported on Wednesday by CNN with reference to Charles Karmakal, vice president and chief engineer of Mandiant, a cybersecurity company.
“The grouping has compromised the websites of many government agencies and organizations that deal with domestic and foreign policy issues, as well as IT companies that provide access to the ultimate targets of hackers in North America and Europe,” he said. Karmakal did not elaborate on which companies they are talking about. He was also unable to tell if the hackers managed to steal any information.
CNN cites a source in the Joe Biden administration in support of its data, according to which “this topic was discussed at recent meetings of the National Security Council.” The TV company does not specify whether it is about the actions of the same group, which, according to the American side, may be linked to Russia, or about cybersecurity in general. US authorities, as well as senators and congressmen, have not announced any new cyber attacks on American institutions and companies in recent weeks.
CNN does not provide any other confirmation of its data, including from other cybersecurity professionals, and does not explain why the source of this information has settled on the vice president of one of the many companies working in the cybersphere.
Hack SolarWinds
SolarWinds' Orion software was hacked in March last year. The hackers managed to inject a virus into the Orion update, which was then downloaded and used by thousands of SolarWinds customers, including leading government agencies, as well as more than 400 of the largest American companies.
On April 15, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia, motivating this decision, among other things, by accusations of Russian intelligence involvement in the SolarWinds hack. Moscow has repeatedly rejected these arguments and announced countermeasures. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was not involved in hacker attacks on US government agencies and companies. According to him, “any accusations of Russia's involvement are absolutely unfounded and are more likely a continuation of the blind Russophobia, which is resorted to in any incident.”
The topic of the fight against “Russian hackers” is regularly raised by the American media. They are associated with serious malfunctions in the work of certain sites, unconfirmed messages about the appearance of regular databases with personal data on the darknet. However, since the Russian-American summit in Geneva on June 16, none of these stories have developed.
