The Biden administration is accusing Russia of carrying out the sweeping cyberattack on the U.S. government and American businesses through a SolarWinds Orion management software update.
The Biden administration announced Thursday that the United States had “high confidence” that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (also known as SVR, APT 29, Cozy Bear, and the Dukes) was behind the expansive online intrusion.
As part of sweeping sanctions against Russia for the espionage campaign and other aggressive cyberactivity against the U.S., the administration identified six technology companies it says worked with the Russian intelligence service. An official told reporters that collaborations ranged “from providing expertise to developing tools.”
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“The SVR’s compromise of the SolarWinds software supply chain gave it the ability to spy on or potentially disrupt more than 16,000 computer systems worldwide,” the administration official said.
“We saw the need to make clear that activities like SolarWinds are reckless and unacceptable,” the official added, emphasizing the burden it placed on the private sector.
The administration is also considering whether to take more executive action to shore up the country’s information and communications technology infrastructure. Risks include products or services provided by Russian businesses or personnel, such as user data storage or remote technical support.
In addition to the sanctions, the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the FBI issued an advisory Thursday describing the technological vulnerabilities that the SVR manipulated to get into networks and devices, as well as how entities can better protect themselves against similar incursions.
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In December, SolarWinds (a U.S.-based company) acknowledged it had been compromised by hackers who infiltrated the company’s Orion software updates in order to distribute malware to its customers’ computers. SolarWinds said roughly 18,000 of its customers had been affected, including federal government agencies such as the Justice Department, the State Department, and the Treasury Department.
Since January, Biden administration officials had only indicated Russia was the attack’s “likely” perpetrator.
