What you need to know about the biggest hack of the US government in yearsRussian agents are suspected in the Orion breach, which affected the treasury and commerce departments – and perhaps others.
A vast trove of US government emails has been targeted in a hack thought to have been carried out by Russia, American officials revealed on Monday.
The stunningly large and sophisticated operation reportedly targeted federal government networks and marks the biggest cyber-raid against US officials in years. The treasury and commerce departments were both affected and others may have been breached.
Hackers gained entry into networks by getting more than 18,000 private and government users to download a tainted software update. Once inside, they were able to monitor internal emails at some of the top agencies in the US.
Dutch prosecutors have found a hacker did successfully log in to Donald Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password – “MAGA2020!”
But they will not be punishing Victor Gevers, who was acting “ethically”.
Mr Gevers shared what he said were screenshots of the inside of Mr Trump’s account on 22 October, during the final stages of the US presidential election.
But at the time, the White House denied it had been hacked and Twitter said it had no evidence of it.
In reference to the latest development, Twitter said: “We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today. We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government.”
The White House has not responded to a request for further comment.
There was an incident at Google that brought Gmail, google pages and other services down for more than half an hour. 10s of thousands of people were inconvenienced; Smart (connected) controls defaulted to “off” which in the case of lights might have been a bad default. And that was without hacking.
We humans might want to consider how much immediate convenience is worth when something fails.
Radish the wordsmith over 3 years ago
What you need to know about the biggest hack of the US government in yearsRussian agents are suspected in the Orion breach, which affected the treasury and commerce departments – and perhaps others.
A vast trove of US government emails has been targeted in a hack thought to have been carried out by Russia, American officials revealed on Monday.
The stunningly large and sophisticated operation reportedly targeted federal government networks and marks the biggest cyber-raid against US officials in years. The treasury and commerce departments were both affected and others may have been breached.
Hackers gained entry into networks by getting more than 18,000 private and government users to download a tainted software update. Once inside, they were able to monitor internal emails at some of the top agencies in the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/15/orion-hack-solar-winds-explained-us-treasury-commerce-department
MFRXIM Premium Member over 3 years ago
Oh no! They got Fluffy!
brwydave Premium Member over 3 years ago
Don’t worry, our sitting President will call Putin, and receive strong assurance that it wasn’t them. Won’t we all feel better?
kentmarx36 over 3 years ago
AND’S THE ORANGE IDIOT’S response? “I don’t care, do you?”
Radish the wordsmith over 3 years ago
Trump Twitter ‘hack’: Police accept attacker’s claim
Dutch prosecutors have found a hacker did successfully log in to Donald Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password – “MAGA2020!”
But they will not be punishing Victor Gevers, who was acting “ethically”.
Mr Gevers shared what he said were screenshots of the inside of Mr Trump’s account on 22 October, during the final stages of the US presidential election.
But at the time, the White House denied it had been hacked and Twitter said it had no evidence of it.
In reference to the latest development, Twitter said: “We’ve seen no evidence to corroborate this claim, including from the article published in the Netherlands today. We proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government.”
The White House has not responded to a request for further comment.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55337192
moosemin over 3 years ago
We are at war, and have been for quite a few years: A 21st century cyber war. A lot cheaper than the old 20th century wars.
Concretionist over 3 years ago
There was an incident at Google that brought Gmail, google pages and other services down for more than half an hour. 10s of thousands of people were inconvenienced; Smart (connected) controls defaulted to “off” which in the case of lights might have been a bad default. And that was without hacking.
We humans might want to consider how much immediate convenience is worth when something fails.
pamela welch Premium Member over 3 years ago
So what is being said is that government employees would’ve been better off using their personal/private emails.
The Love of Money is . . . over 3 years ago
I’ve said this before. Russian got an asset, we got an ass.
donut reply over 3 years ago
As usual great artwork, but I think Kitty has 5 legs.