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"They are the most advanced adversary that we deal with in the Western world," Carmakal said. "This time around they are hacking into a lot of different companies and using those companies as entry points into the ultimate target they are trying to get into," Charles Carmakal, Mandiant senior vice president and chief technology officer, told The Hill in an interview ahead of the release of the findings.
RUSSIAN HACK SOLARWINDS SOFTWARE
The announcement by the former FireEye was the first public clue to a massive espionage campaign that had been ongoing for most of 2020, which became known as the SolarWinds hack due to the hackers using a vulnerability in software from IT company SolarWinds to breach customer networks, among other avenues of attack.Īt least nine federal agencies and 100 private sector groups were breached as a result, and President Biden levied sanctions on Russia in April in retaliation. The new activity was announced by Mandiant almost exactly a year after the company, formerly known as FireEye, announced its systems had been breached by "a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities." "Though Mandiant cannot currently attribute this activity with higher confidence, the operational security associated with this intrusion and exploitation of a third party is consistent with the tactics employed by the actors behind the SolarWinds compromise."
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"This intrusion activity reflects a well-resourced threat actor set operating with a high level of concern for operational security," Mandiant researchers wrote in the report.