Chinese hackers have used another SolarWinds Orion exploit to break into computers at the USDA and other U.S. agencies, reports Reuters.
The agency stated that it was supposed to be discovered by the FBI. The Orion SolarWinds scandal erupted in January of this year, when it became known that hackers more than a year ago gained access to servers from companies like Cisco, Intel, Nvida, Vmware, Belkin and Deloitte thanks to vulnerabilities in the system. Microsoft reported that 44 percent. The company’s customers who were the victims of the attack on SolarWinds Orion are IT companies that deal with security, IT services, and hardware delivery.
According to the findings of The Wall Street Journal, Russian hackers are alleged to be behind the breach. US authorities have ordered the immediate closure of SolarWinds Orion in central offices.
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It now turns out that the Chinese hackers that he was supposed to use to penetrate the network also took advantage of the vulnerabilities in the Orion system. According to Reuters, the potential impact of this attack may be “enormous.” What information could the hackers steal from the National Financial Center, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), or how deeply their penetration into its systems has yet to be established. The data stored there is a real treasure of thieves from a foreign country. It includes, among other things, information on 600 thousand. Federal employees, including payroll and banking information.
Chinese hackers were supposed to be stormed at a time when criminals from Russia had broken into the system as well, according to Reuters.
The agency was unable to determine how many organizations had been attacked by Chinese hackers, but investigators were able to determine that they used the computer infrastructure and hacking tools previously used by Chinese state-backed cybercriminals.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the USDA denied that the agency’s servers had been compromised and that any data had been leaked. But the spokesman refused to answer the journalists’ questions.
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Beijing also denies. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said attribution of the cyber attacks is a “complex technical problem” and any allegations must be supported by evidence. “China firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber-attacks and theft,” the statement said.
SolarWinds confirmed there was another break-in, but it involved one customer and there is no conclusive evidence of the identity of the thieves. The company added that the attackers had no access to its own internal systems, and that it had already released an update in December to fix a bug.