The Grind:
Hackers have reportedly breached the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, according to news reports and government officials.
“They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE,” Politico reported. “The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, and officials there have evidence of highly malicious activity, the officials said, but did not elaborate.”
The Details:
“At this point, the investigation has found that the malware has been isolated to business networks only, and has not impacted the mission essential national security functions of the department, including the National Nuclear Security Administration,” Shaylyn Hynes, a DOE spokesperson, claimed in a statement. “When DOE identified vulnerable software, immediate action was taken to mitigate the risk, and all software identified as being vulnerable to this attack was disconnected from the DOE network.”
The Trump administration believes that Russia intelligence is behind the attack which has lasted for months and is still ongoing. Read more…