In mid-December 2020, US authorities announced the most extensive penetration of hackers into US government IT systems. The largest cyberattack in the United States in history made it possible for hackers to take possession of all secret and working documents of US government agencies, as well as a number of American and global companies.
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The presence of strangers in its networks was first discovered by a company specializing in data protection. FireEye. It was they who tracked how, in a fairly secure network themselves “hacker catchers”, outside observers appeared.
How did you manage to hack the US government IT system?
How did you manage to hack the US government IT system? It's all about the document and mail exchange program “Orion”, which was attacked by Russian hackers. The attackers, disguised as the main ORION server, sent updates to all clients of this service. This update was a Trojan horse to gain full access to information on the company's document flow.
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But the biggest problem for the United States is that it is this system that US government agencies use to transfer working documentation, including secret ones. It is unknown what part of the documents became compromised.
This attack could have given Russia access to the vast majority of documents that provide information on both foreign and domestic policies of the United States. The attackers operated undetected for approximately nine months.
US response to cyber attack
The Donald Trump administration commented on the large-scale cyber attack. But the reaction turned out to be contradictory.
US authorities blame Russian intelligence hackers and group Cozy Bear. The Kremlin, as is its custom, denies everything, citing Russophobia.
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These actions may cause you to enter “santsius from hell” under the next Joe Biden administration – a package of documents that can economically isolate the Russian Federation from the whole world.
Watch the White House's reaction in the video report Voices of America :
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