CISA says a hacker breached a federal agency

[silversurfer]

Content source

https://www.zdnet.com/article/cisa-says-a-hacker-breached-a-federal-agency/

A hacker has gained access and exfiltrated data from a federal agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said on Thursday.

The name of the hacked federal agency, the date of the intrusion, or any details about the intruder, such as an industry codename or state affiliation, were not disclosed.

CISA officials revealed the hack after publishing an in-depth incident response (IR) report detailing the intruder's every step.

The report, which ZDNet analyzed today, reveals how the intruder gained access to the federal agency's internal networks through different channels, such as leveraging compromised credentials for Microsoft Office 365 (O365) accounts, domain administrator accounts, and credentials for the agency's Pulse Secure VPN server.

CISA says a hacker breached a federal agency

CISA didn't name the attacker but it published an in-depth incident report detailing the hacker's every step.

www.zdnet.com

 

[Andy Ful]

It is not a problem to hack most institutions, agencies, enterprises, etc. The problem for the hacker is that usually it cannot be done without consequences and without leaving traces. Such hacking is not profitable at all.
Hacking the federal agency will probably throw the hacker into jail or will make him a hacker that works for the federal agency (except if he already worked for another one).

 

[[correlate]]

A WARNING THAT unidentified hackers broke into an agency of the US federal government and stole its data is troubling enough. But it becomes all the more disturbing when those unidentified intruders are identified—and appear likely to be part of a notorious team of cyberspies working in the service of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU.

Russia’s Fancy Bear Hackers Likely Penetrated a US Federal Agency

New clues indicate that APT28 may be behind a mysterious intrusion that US officials disclosed last week.

www.wired.com

 

[Andy Ful]

Now let's imagine how busy must be the American hackers that work for the US government.
There are so many targets (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and many others).
They have very challenging goals because it would be really hard to change the results of Putin's election and Xi Jinping will probably die as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.