• 9964432222
  • Mail Us
  • Appointment
  • Locate Us
  • Chat Now
  • Courses
  • Login
  • Register
Manifest IAS
JournalsOfIndia
Advertisement
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Science & Tech
  • Environment
  • Law & Policy
  • History
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Science & Tech
  • Environment
  • Law & Policy
  • History
No Result
View All Result
JournalsOfIndia
No Result
View All Result
Home Security

SolarWinds hack

December 19, 2020
in Security, Foreign Affairs
Reading Time: 4min read
0
SolarWinds hack
55
VIEWS
Share on TelegramShare on Facebook

In news 

The ‘SolarWinds hack’, a cyberattack recently discovered in the United States, has emerged as one of the biggest ever targeted against the US government, its agencies and several other private companies.

What is ‘SolarWinds hack’?

  • SolarWinds hack was first discovered by US cybersecurity company FireEye, and since then more developments continue to come to light each day
  • News of the cyberattack technically first broke on December 8, when FireEye put out a blog detecting an attack on its systems. 
  • CEO of FireEye said that the company was “attacked by a highly sophisticated threat actor”, calling it a state-sponsored attack
  • The company also said  the attack was carried out by a nation “with top-tier offensive capabilities”, and “the attacker primarily sought information related to certain government customers.” It also said the methods used by the attackers were novel.
  • The firm helps with security management of several big private companies and federal government agencies. 
  • The sheer scale of the cyber-attack remains unknown, although the US Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Commerce, parts of the Pentagon are all believed to have been impacted.

How did so many US government agencies and companies get attacked?

  • This is being called a ‘Supply Chain’ attack: Instead of directly attacking the federal government or a private organisation’s network, the hackers target a third-party vendor, which supplies software to them. 
  • In this case, the target was an IT management software called Orion, supplied by the Texas-based company SolarWinds.
  • A New York Times report said parts of the Pentagon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department, the Justice Department, and others, were all impacted.
  • A Reuters report said that even emails sent by Department of Homeland Security officials were “monitored by the hackers”.

How did the hackers gain access?

  • According to FireEye, the hackers gained “access to victims via trojanized updates to SolarWinds’ Orion IT monitoring and management software”. Basically, a software update was exploited to install the ‘Sunburst’ malware into Orion, which was then installed by more than 17,000 customers.
  • It also says that the attackers relied on “multiple techniques” to avoid being detected and “obscure their activity”. The malware was capable of accessing the system files. 
  • According to FireEye, what worked in the malware’s favour was it was able to “blend in with legitimate SolarWinds activity”.
  • Once installed, the malware gave a backdoor entry to the hackers to the systems and networks of SolarWinds’ customers. More importantly, the malware was also able to thwart tools such as anti-virus that could detect it.

Where does Russia come in?

  • In his New York Times opinion article, Bossert named Russia and its agency SVR, which has the capabilities to execute the attack of such ingenuity and scale.
  • Microsoft notes in its blog that “this aspect of the attack created a supply chain vulnerability of nearly global importance, reaching many major national capitals outside Russia”. It goes on to add that sophisticated attacks from Russia have become common.
What is a cyber attack?

A cyber attack is a malicious attempt by a third party to damage, destroy or alter:

  • computer networks
  • computer information systems
  • computer or network infrastructure
  • personal computer devices

Criminals launch cyber attacks for many reasons: to steal money, access financial and sensitive data, weaken integrity or disrupt the operations of a company or an individual. Attacks often result in crimes such as financial fraud, information or identity theft.

Examples of cyber attacks

Cyber attackers use many different methods to try to compromise IT systems. Most common practices are:

  • remote attacks on IT systems or website
  • unauthorised access to information held on a corporate network or systems
  • unauthorised access to data held in third-party systems (eg hosted services)
  • system infiltration or damage through malware
  • disruption or denial of service that limits access to your network or systems

Some of the malware that were in news:

  • CovidLock, ransomware, 2020. 
  • LockerGoga, ransomware, 2019. 
  • Emotet, trojan, 2018.
  • WannaCry, ransomware, 2017. 
  • Petya, ransomware, 2016. 
  • CryptoLocker, ransomware, 2013.
  • Stuxnet, worm, 2010.

What are the recommendations of the US government and SolarWinds?

  • As of now SolarWinds is recommending that all customers immediately update the existing Orion platform, which has a patch for this malware. 
  • Those unable to update are told to isolate “SolarWinds servers” and it should “include blocking all Internet egress from SolarWinds servers”. The bare minimum suggestion is the “changing passwords for accounts that have access to SolarWinds servers / infrastructure”.
  • The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued an Emergency Directive 21-01, asking all “federal civilian agencies to review their networks” for indicators of compromise. 
    • It has asked them to “disconnect or power down SolarWinds Orion products immediately”.
  • The FBI, CISA and office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement, and announced what is called the ‘Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG)” in order to coordinate government response to the crisis. 
    • The statement calls this a “significant and ongoing cybersecurity campaign.”
  • President-elect Joe Biden said in a statement: “A good defense isn’t enough; We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant cyber attacks in the first place.”
Source: The Indian Express
Tags: Prelims

Related Posts

India’s Act East Policy

India’s Act East Policy

January 25, 2021
Draft Data Centre Policy,2020

Draft Data Centre Policy,2020

January 22, 2021
Exercise Kavach

Exercise Kavach

January 22, 2021
Future of Open Skies Treaty

Future of Open Skies Treaty

January 21, 2021
S-400 anti-missile system

S-400 anti-missile system

January 20, 2021
India’s Arctic Policy

India’s Arctic Policy

January 18, 2021
Great Firewall of China

Great Firewall of China

January 16, 2021
Russia to exit Open SKies treaty

Russia to exit Open SKies treaty

January 16, 2021
FATF’s 27 action plan

FATF’s 27 action plan

January 15, 2021
GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2020

GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2020

January 14, 2021
Please login to join discussion

Browse by Category

  • Agriculture
  • Disaster Management
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Geography
  • Governance
  • History
  • Law & Policy
  • Opinion
  • People in News
  • Places in News
  • Science & Tech
  • Security
  • Society

Browse by Tags

AIR Big Picture Down to Earth GS-1 GS-2 GS-3 GS-4 Kurukshetra Mains News Paper PIB Prelims RSTV Spotlight on AIR Yojana
JournalsOfIndia

Our vision is to orient the readers to grasp the facts objectively and analyse critically. In the rush of reaching first to the readers, the websites miss the balanced opinion, which is the need of the hour. We aim to reach the readers with more crispness, preciseness and relevance. We bring the articles in UPSC way for the civil services aspirants and the Wisest Way for general readers.

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Disaster Management
  • Economy
  • Environment
  • Ethics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Geography
  • Governance
  • History
  • Law & Policy
  • Opinion
  • People in News
  • Places in News
  • Science & Tech
  • Security
  • Society

Browse by Tag

AIR Big Picture Down to Earth GS-1 GS-2 GS-3 GS-4 Kurukshetra Mains News Paper PIB Prelims RSTV Spotlight on AIR Yojana

Newsletter

The most important UPSC news and events of the day.

Get Journals daily newsletter on your inbox.

© 2020 JournalsOfIndia - A free initiative by Manifest Team.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Home
  • Prelims Snippets
  • Mains Articles
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Science & Tech
  • Environment
  • Agriculture
  • History
  • Law & Policy
  • Security
  • Course Portal
  • Prelims Test Portal
No Result
View All Result

© 2020 JournalsOfIndia - A free initiative by Manifest Team.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In