December 16th. media said that experts said that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was included in the list of known victims of a highly complex digital espionage campaign in Russia that lasted for months and was on the 14th. The damage caused by this activity is still uncertain, but it is considered to be widespread. The Russian side denies this statement.
Officials and other people familiar with the matter who declined to be named said that the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department are on the list of victims, and more federal agencies and many private companies are expected to appear on the list.
On the 14th, Sunwind reported in a federal security document that Russia manipulated the widely used network management software produced by the company and carried out an intrusion, and its “less than 18,000” customers may have been affected. But this only accounts for a small part of the company’s more than 300,000 customers worldwide, including the Pentagon and the White House. Russia denied any relationship with the invasion.
The fact that the department responsible for protecting the United States from physical and cyber attacks has been victims highlights the importance of the activity and raises doubts about the adequacy of the federal government’s efforts in cybersecurity.
The report also said that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security asked all federal agencies to immediately disconnect Sunwind’s products on the evening of the 13th, and reported that the disconnection had been completed by noon on the 14th.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said that the Department of Homeland Security was aware of reports of hacking and was investigating the matter.
It is reported that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Agency is behind the operation of this activity at least this spring.
According to a report by the Russian News Agency in Moscow on December 14, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in commenting on the report that the hacker attack on the U.S. Treasury Department network that the matter has nothing to do with Russia. He also recalled that Putin proposed to cooperate with the United States in the field of cybersecurity, but did not receive any response from the United States.
Peskov told reporters: “I refute these allegations again. I want to remind you again that it is Putin who proposed to negotiate cooperation and reach an agreement with the United States in the field of cyber security and information security. This would have helped our two countries cooperate to combat any form of cybercrime, cyber espionage, etc. Putin’s proposal did not receive a response from the United States.
Pescoff added that if there are certain hacking attacks for months in a row, and the Americans can’t do anything about it, “there is no need to blame Russia empty-mouthedly, which has nothing to do with us”.
