‘UNACCEPTABLE RISK’

U.S. Government Agencies Ordered to Shut Down Systems to Fight Russia-Linked Cyberattack

On Sunday, it was reported that Russian government-backed spies hacked into the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments.

This sounds pretty serious. The U.S. government’s civilian agencies were ordered late Sunday to carry out an emergency review of their networks and shut down some software products as a major cyberattack posed “unacceptable risks” to their systems. On Sunday, it was reported that Russian government-backed spies hacked into the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments in a breach so serious that the National Security Council had to be briefed. The hack apparently continued through the night—late Sunday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an emergency order instructing all federal civilian agencies to immediately shut down the use of SolarWinds Orion products. SolarWinds, a U.S. network-management company, counts the Secret Service, the Defense Department, and the Federal Reserve among its customers, according to The Wall Street Journal.