The House committees on Homeland Security and Oversight and Reform Thursday launched an investigation into a wide-ranging hack that has impacted multiple federal agencies since it was publicly revealed Dec. 13.
The House investigation was announced hours after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released an alert outlining at least one more attack vector used by hackers in addition to the SolarWinds Orion product used to compromise some federal systems. The alert further identified IT and security personnel as prime targets for hackers.
“Our committees are seeking information related to the apparent, widespread compromise of multiple federal government, critical infrastructure, and private sector information technology networks,” said Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, in a letter to the heads of the FBI, Homeland Security and the intelligence community.
“While investigations and technical forensic analyses are still ongoing, based on preliminary reporting, it is evident that this latest cyber intrusion could have potentially devastating consequences for U.S. national security,” the lawmakers added.
Per a Dec. 13 CISA directive, federal agencies were ordered to turn off all instances of the SolarWinds Orion software connected to government systems. Developments since then have signaled the hack—potentially carried out by Russians, though the government has yet to confirm that—was more widespread than previously thought. While the hack remains under investigation by multiple agencies, Maloney and Thompson said their committees expect transparent information to inform their decisions moving forward.
“As the committees of jurisdiction for U.S. cybersecuri ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
