Massive Cyber Attacks in the USA.
                     MASSIVE CYBER 
ATTACKS IN THE USA
INTRODUCTION
• The 'SolarWinds hack' has appeared as one of 
the largest cyber threats against the US 
government, its institutions and numerous 
other private corporations in the past. 
Source: indianexpress.com
WORLDWIDE CYBER ATTACK
• The attack was detected recently in the United 
States. It is possibly a worldwide cyber attack, 
in reality. 
Source: usatoday.com
FireEye
• It was first noticed by FireEye, a company 
based in the US, and further discoveries have 
been made public every day ever since then. 
Source: rhisac.org
TARGET OF CYBER ATTECK
• The exact size of the cyber attack is unclear, 
even though some areas of the Pentagon is 
thought to have targeted the US Treasury, 
Homeland Security Agency, and Department of 
Commerce.
Source: csoonline.com
TRUMP BLAME RUSSIA
• Thomas P. Bossert, Homeland Security Adviser 
to President Donald Trump, called Russia for 
an attack in an opinion paper written for The 
New York Times. 
Source: indianexpress.com
EVIDENCE
• The evidence was noticed for a Russian 
intelligence agency called the SVR, the trading 
of which is one of the most advanced in the 
world.
Source: thedailybeast.com
WHAT IS THIS ‘SOLARWINDS 
HACK’?
• On December 8, the news of the cyberattack 
broke when FireEye posted a blog detecting an 
intrusion on their infrastructure. 
• The business works to handle the defense of 
many major private corporations and federal 
authorities. 
Source: bbc.com
How did so many US government 
agencies and companies get attacked?
• The attack is considered a "Supply Chain 
attack," which attacks a third-party provider, 
supplying them with tools rather than 
targeting either the Federal Government or 
the private organization's network directly. 
• The goal in this case was the programme Orion 
for IT management, supplied by SolarWinds, a 
Texas-based organisation.
Source: indianexpress.com
HOW DID THEY GAIN ACCESS?
• According to FireEye hackers have gained 
access to SolarWinds' Orion IT monitoring and 
management software via trojanized updates 
to victims. 
• Basically, the 'Sunburst' malware was installed 
in Orion with a security upgrade installed by 
around 17,000 customers.
Source: www.govtech.com
MICROSOFT
• Microsoft acknowledged it found proof of 
ransomware on its servers, even though it 
added that no "customer or production service 
access" or "systems were used to attack 
others" evidence was available. 
• The organisation has now started to notify the 
40 customers that the attackers target more 
precisely and are more compromised 
Microsoft President Brad Smith said.
Source: etcio.com