The breaches of agencies including the Treasury and Commerce departments, believed to be the work of Russia, prompted an emergency meeting of the National Security Council.
Hackers from a foreign nation-state have breached multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, in a months-long campaign that has stirred concerns of the highest levels of the federal government.
While the full scope and significance of the breaches remain unclear, their discovery prompted an emergency meeting Saturday of the White House’s National Security Council, according to a U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing incident. A second U.S. official said the attack is believed to be the work of the Russian government, a link also made in multiple news reports Sunday night.
The campaign appears to be linked to a recently disclosed hack of security firm FireEye, a leading cyber company that has said the attackers obtained tools used to probe and test weaknesses in computer networks.
The intrusions of the government networks involved a sophisticated compromise of federal workers’ Microsoft email accounts, the U.S. official said. Microsoft’s email and office software is commonly used throughout the federal government.
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Hackers from a foreign nation-state have breached multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration https://t.co/kbb4mOHO5y
— POLITICO (@politico) December 14, 2020
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