Russian cyberattack that attacked US govt

A massive cyber attack reportedly executed by a Russian intelligence agency put thousands of companies and US government agencies at risk of being spied on or having data stolen for up to nine months. With this Cisco becomes the victim of Russian cyber-attack using SolarWinds.Cisco Systems was compromised as part of a suspected Russian campaign that attacked the US government and private sector.

The software firm SolarWinds was breached earlier this year when hackers broke into its system and inserted malicious code into one of its software platforms. Customers who updated their software from March to June added the malware to their networks, giving the hackers a backdoor into their systems.

Some internal machines used by Cisco researchers were targeted, the networking equipment maker said. The company said its security team moved quickly to address the issue and that the “affected software” has been mitigated.

Sources said, SolarWinds has hundreds of thousands of clients across the globe, including government agencies and most Fortune 500 companies. The company said up to 18,000 of its customers downloaded the software update that contained the malicious code.

The research further says, some internal machines used by Cisco researchers were targeted. Cisco said its security team moved quickly to address the issue and that the "affected software" has been "mitigated". Cisco used software internally from SolarWinds that has been used by hackers.