U.S. officials suspect Russia in largest hack in years
The Trump administration said on Sunday that hackers acting on behalf of a foreign government — almost certainly Russian intelligence, according to federal and private experts — broke into key government networks and had access to email systems.
It was one of the most sophisticated and perhaps largest hacks in more than five years, infiltrating the Treasury and Commerce Departments and targeting national security-related agencies. A hunt was on to determine if other parts of the government had been affected.
The motive remains elusive, two people familiar with the matter said, and it was too soon to tell how damaging the attacks were. But the attacks may have been underway as early as this spring, meaning they continued undetected through months of the pandemic and the election season.
Details: The campaign involved the hackers inserting code into periodic updates of software used to manage networks by a company called SolarWinds. Its products are widely used in corporate and federal networks, and the malware was carefully minimized to avoid detection.
The New York Times