FBI, CISA, ODNI and NSA blames Russia for SolarWinds hack

A joint statement issued by US security agencies confirmed that Russia was likely the origin of the SolarWinds supply chain attack.

The US agencies FBI, CISA, ODNI, and the NSA released a joint statement that blames Russia for the SolarWinds supply chain attack.

On behalf of President Trump, the four agencies were part of the task force Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) that is coordinating the investigation and remediation of the SolarWinds hack that had a significant impact on federal government networks. The UCG’s investigation is still ongoing to determine the scope of the incident.

According to the UCG’s statement, the attack was orchestrated by an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin.

“This work indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks.” reads the statement. “At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort.”

The UCG confirmed that approximately 18,000 customers of Solar Winds’ Orion product were impacted, but only a smaller number of them have been compromised. The Government experts also identified fewer than ten U.S. government agencies that were impacted.

The statement dismantles President Donald Trump’s claim that the attack was orchestrated by China-linked actors and confirms the report published by the Washington Post that blames the Russia-linked APT29 group.

Recently the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has updated its official guidance to order US federal agencies to update the SolarWinds Orion platforms by the end of the year.

The Russian Government has denied involvement in the hack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, SolarWinds)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.