The hack took months to find, giving hackers a huge amount of time to access sensitive systems. ![]() ‘The reason these systems are good targets is because they’re deeply embedded in systems operations and administration.’ What has the response been to the hack? ‘These types of tools are allowed deep access to systems,’ said Brandon Hoffman, chief information security officer at the California-based IT provider Netenrich. Orion, the SolarWinds’ product which hackers gained access to, makes up close to half of the company’s total revenue.īecause of the centralised nature of the software, malicious actors that gain access have the ability to gain a ‘bird’s-eye view’ of organisation’s computer networks.įireEye said the malware had impressive capabilities – from lying dormant for weeks, to hiding in plain cover by cloaking its activity as standard Orion procedures. Researchers have named the hack Sunburst and say it might take years to find out the true extent of one of the biggest ever cyber-attacks. The Austin, Texas-based company offers network-monitoring and other services to hundreds of thousands of organizations, including a swathe of Fortune 500 companies and government agencies in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. While government officials haven’t yet stated which agencies are affected, the state department, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which helps coordinate pandemic response) and Homeland Security all use the SolarWinds software.įireEye executive Charles Carmakal said the company was aware of ‘dozens of incredibly high-value targets’ hackers had access to, and was helping ‘a number of organisations respond to their intrusions’.īut the potentially affected organisations could be vast, given the extensive client list that SolarWinds has. The US government, which was probably the main target of the hack, is the most high-profile casualty. How serious is the hack and who has been affected? #SOLARWINDS WORLD MAP IMAGES DOWNLOAD#The long lag between infection and discovery would have given hackers plenty of time to download highly sensitive information. Though the breach happened months ago, it was not discovered until US cybersecurity company FireEye, which uses SolarWinds, found it had suffered a hack. ![]() #SOLARWINDS WORLD MAP IMAGES UPDATE#While security researchers are still speculating on the exact method, some think it could have been as simple as guessing the password.Ī security researcher told Reuters that he found SolarWinds’ update server last year was the password ‘solarwinds123’. #SOLARWINDS WORLD MAP IMAGES SOFTWARE#The malware, which was installed on an update package for SolarWinds software Orion, gave hackers access to the infected machines – and the network at large. How did the hackers gain access?Ī US company called SolarWinds, which provides services monitoring government and business networks for outages, was hacked in early March of this year. While the cyber-raid may be difficult to picture, the real-world outcomes could be very serious.
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