SolarWinds hack hits major tech companies and hospital system: What you need to know
A Russian intelligence agency is carrying out a sophisticated malware campaign, striking several US federal agencies and private companies including Microsoft, according to the State Department, news reports and analysis from security firms. It all started earlier this year, when hackers compromised software made by cybersecurity SolarWinds.
The hacked company sells software that lets an organization see what's happening on its computer networks. Hackers inserted malicious code into an updated version of the software, called Orion. Around 18,000 SolarWinds customers installed the tainted updates onto their systems, the company said. The compromised update process has had a sweeping effect, the scale of which keeps growing as new information emerges.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump floated on Twitter the idea that China might be behind the attack. Trump, who didn't provide evidence to support the suggestion of Chinese involvement, tagged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who had earlier said in a radio interview that "we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity."
US national security agencies issued a joint statement Wednesday calling it a "significant and ongoing hacking campaign" that's affecting the federal government. It's still unclear how many agencies are affected or what information hackers might have stolen so far, but by all accounts the malware is extremely powerful. According to analysis by Microsoft and security firm FireEye, both of which were also infected with the malware, it gives hackers broad reach into impacted systems.
On Thursday, Microsoft said it had identified more than 40 customers that were targeted in the hack. More information is likely to emerge about the hack and its aftermath. Here's what you need to know about the SolarWinds hack:
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