The large-scale cyberattack on the US government has been going on at least since March, according to the US Department of Cyber and Infrastructure Security (CISA), of the US Department of Homeland Security. They classified the US government cyberattack as a “serious danger”.
CISA sees the US government cyberattack as a threat to the federal government in Washington, state and local governments, critical infrastructure and private sector organizations. In a warning message, it was said that the removal of the attacker from the affected systems would probably be “highly complex”.
Russian Connection
It was reported that the attackers had connections to the Russian secret service. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Russia of participating in the attack. The Russian government denied all allegations.
Are hackers now also targeting the US infrastructure? A malicious program was found on the company laptop of an electricity supplier, Burlington Electric, that the US authorities attribute to the alleged Russian Grizzly Steppe attack. But there was no damage.
The malware found at Burlington Electric, was not used to disrupt operations. But the mere fact that the hackers managed to get close to the control system of the power grid, causes the responsible authorities to be upset.
What Microsoft Founds
The devastating proportions of the US government cyberattack are only slowly becoming clear. The US company Microsoft recently disclosed that it had identified more than 40 government agencies, think tanks, non-governmental organizations and IT companies that had been hacked by the hackers.
According to initial findings, the hackers had broken into computers belonging to the US Treasury. The US Department of Energy said it was also one of the facilities that was hacked. It was declared by future US President Joe Biden, that these kinds of attacks would not be tolerated by him, when he came into power. The US House of Representatives said several committees and sub-committees had launched a joint investigation into the US government cyberattack.
