Globally, thousands of organizations, including schools, companies, and even
government agencies, have been affected by the Russian hackers. The American officials have
blamed the events on Russia for embracing people's privacy. According to the New York Times,
the hack was from Russia because they are best known for the malware campaign (Sanger et al.,
2021). The Russian hackers have also managed to invade the US servers by exploiting the
National Security agency's legal prohibition through the illusion of cyber defenses and domestic
surveillance deployed by the Homeland Security department. The paper will elaborate more on
the Russian Hackers in America.
There have been controversies that the Russians have become professional hackers. The
attack at the Solar Winds Company took place when the Russian Hackers interfered with the
company's backend infrastructure by adding the Solorigate/Sunburst malware to the Orion
packages (Cimpanu, 2021). This access made the hackers enter Solar Winds systems and
updated the Orion products. After that, they inserted the malicious code into the software update
to attack their supply chain. Since the company's software was infected, the Russians managed to
pull the supply chain's packages. The hackers knew that people could not download any
malicious software during the phishing campaign. That is why they relied on several companies
and government agencies to install the Orion update using Solar Winds prompts (Hautala, 2021).
The Russian hackers used the Solar Winds Company to conduit the attacks since their
lackluster history was on the product's security. The government investigators and employees
also claimed that this is why the company became an easy target. The reason why the company
was attacked is still shrouded is because most analysts believed that Russians wanted to shake
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Washington's security of its demonstration and communications to the cyber arsenal (Sanger et
al., 2021).
The Russian hacking breached several corporations. Before the hack, Solar Winds was
the only company that consisted of several chain vendors in the country. Russians also attacked
the Microsoft company by tallying more than 40 victims who were not breached until the
resellers sold the software the second time (Cimpanu, 2021). Another report released by
Amazon's intelligence added that the Solar Winds case's victims were five times greater.
The American government was also another target of the attack, particularly the
Pentagon, the energy department, commerce department, state department, and the treasury
department. However, attacks on the defense department were unsuccessful even though the
report never had enough evidence. Most resellers have been entrusted with the software when
setting them for the clients. Since the Solar Winds Company had access to Microsoft customers,
they were attacked by the Russian hackers' Trojan horse virus (Hautala, 2021).
The US intelligence officials argued that it was the role of Microsoft Company to detect
the attack. However, the analysis revealed that the hackers used the source code to never disclose
the products. No one knows how long they have been connected. The US cybersecurity agencies
(ODNI, CISA, NASA, and the FBI) accused the Russian government of orchestrating the supply
chains which belonged to Solar Winds.
The report also shows that the hack was linked to the advanced persistent threat (APT 29)
intrusion codename used in the cyber-security industries associated with the Russian Foreign
Intelligence service (Cimpanu, 2021). Even though the US officials believed that the Solar
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Winds hacking was linked to APT29 or other hacking groups, they had to respond to the public
claiming the Trump administration stayed away from investigating the Russian hackers.
Rumors spread, claiming that the hacking had a relation with president Trump since the
2016 presidential election. However, the report addressed the incident as an intelligence-
gathering effort (Hautala, 2021). The American officials worked hard to end the conspiracy
theories that had spread, stating that the Solar Winds hack took place when the voting machines
were hacked to cause the perform election fraud.
The American officials claim that the APT actor, which originated from Russia, was why
the Solar Winds Company was hacked. ZDNet's report revealed that Solar Winds intrusion was
linked to the APT codename through the cyber-security industry because it was associated with
the Russian Foreign Intelligence service. The American officials have also stated that
approximately 18,000 Orion clients bought these updates and installed them (Hautala, 2021).
The Russian hackers used a few customers to escalate the virus to the second step malware
installation known as the Teardrop.
Conclusion
The controversies that the Russians have become professional hackers are evident in
America. The Russian hacking breached several corporations. For instance, The Russian hackers
used the Solar Winds Company to conduit the attacks since their lackluster history was on the
product's security. The Russian hackers have also managed to invade the US servers by
exploiting the National Security agency's legal prohibition through the illusion of cyber defenses
and domestic surveillance deployed by the Homeland Security department.
5
References
Cimpanu, C. (2021, January 5). US government formally blames Russia for the SolarWinds hack.
ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-government-formally-blames-russia-for-
solarwinds-hack/
Hautala, L. (2021, January 5). Russia has allegedly hit the US with an unprecedented malware
attack: Here's what you need to know. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/solarwinds-
hack-officially-blamed-on-russia-what-you-need-to-know/
Sanger, D. E., Perlroth, N., & Barnes, J. E. (2021, January 5). As the understanding of Russian
hacking grows, so does alarm. The New York Times – Breaking News, US News, World
News, and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/us/politics/russian-hacking-
government.html