NYT: the attack by Russian hackers affected 250 departments and companies - six times more than previously thought • Meduza • RIMA

NYT: the attack by Russian hackers affected 250 departments and companies - six times more than previously thought

A cyberattack by hackers believed to be linked to Russian intelligence agencies has affected more than 250 government agencies and large companies, writes The New York Times.

About cyber attack

In December, it became known about a cyber attack on federal departments and corporations in the United States, which had lasted at least since the spring of 2020. Among others, the Treasury, the State Department, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy and partly the Pentagon suffered. The attack was suspected by the Cozy Bear group, which is associated with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

Initially, it was believed that hackers attacked several dozen companies and departments. Thus, according to Microsoft, as of December 17, 40 organizations became victims of the attack. But the numbers have changed after cloud companies like Amazon and Microsoft conducted their own investigations.

The New York Times notes that the "early warning" sensors that Cyber Command and the US National Security Agency installed on foreign networks to detect potential threats did not seem to work in the case of this attack.

In addition, the newspaper writes, the desire of the US government to protect presidential elections from cyberattacks could divert attention and resources from such long-standing problems as protecting software supplies.

Initially, it was reported that the hackers used the SolarWinds platform for illegal access, but then the US cybersecurity agency reported that there were other access points. At the end of December, an unsuccessful attack by Russian hackers was reported by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. According to her, the hackers tried to hack through a company that sells Microsoft Office 365 software.
Microsoft reported on Dec. 31 that the hackers involved in the massive attack gained access to the company's internal information about its program code, but were unable to make changes to it.