In early 2020, the Texas-based software company SolarWinds was unheard of. Currently, it is now associated with one of the largest security breaches to national security in global history. The Departments of State, Commerce, Treasury, and Homeland Security were all victims of the cyber-attack in December, leaving classified and top-secret governmental information open to access by these hackers. To make matters worse, nobody noticed for 9 months.
SolarWinds provides computer network management tools to a diverse range of wealthy companies; including UK’s Deloitte and the US Defence to protect classified info. Over 6 governmental agencies and some of America’s largest corporations fell for the hacker’s infiltration of the software. The “highly sophisticated” attack manipulated the Orion security software with malware, slowly embedding their coding into Orion itself, enabling the hackers to download and transfer protected data into their own networks. The question remains, who was the perpetrator and what were their intentions?
Extensive security concerns brew amid allegations of Russia’s involvement in the scandal. The US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien states that there is “no doubt it was done by a state actor”. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed Russia was “clearly” behind the attack. In a new interview, the spy chief of Russia’s Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin denied all claims of Russian involvement, calling the allegations “pathetic”. As a result, Biden has imposed sanctions on Russia, including 32 officials and expelled 10 diplomats not only because of the hackings but meddling in 2020 elections. The back-and-forth power play between these two actors echoes the Cold War in cyber form. The hacking is considered one of the most sophisticated attacks so far in cyber history considering the importance of the classified data.
The main concern is how the hackers infiltrated the most complex of security systems. It seems shocking, or even embarrassing that hackers could access US government information without anybody noticing for 9 months. Therefore, the attack had intent to access a backdoor of information of the US government and large technology companies. GCHQ claimed that it was “highly likely” that Russian Intelligence was responsible for the cyber-crime. The UK’s response was provoked due to some large companies being affected; the former Director of GCHQ Ciaran Martin told the BBC that this “large scale espionage” has existed for years. It is unknown what information the hackers were able to gain access to or currently have; however, over 33,000 users of SolarWinds were hacked simultaneously. Consequently, the hacking catastrophe has meant SolarWinds has lost over $2.3b in stock, losing over a third of its value.
A Cold War 2.0 is brewing, but with larger implications – knowledge and data is power. If Russia were involved with the hacking scandal, the malign nature of international relations between the West and the East is becoming increasingly hostile. Biden stated that the United States was not looking to escalate conflict with Russia, yet acts that threaten the national security of the global hegemon may be more the reason to engage in this Cold War 2.0.
Facts • Balance • Context
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cloudflare | 1 month | The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFlare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. |
Cloudflare Always Online | This cookie is set by the provider Cloudflare content delivery network. This cookie is used for determining whether it should continue serving "Always Online" until the cookie expires. | |
Cookie Consent | 1 year | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Login Paywall | 1 month | This cookie keeps track on whether the user is logged in and can view content. |
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics: Persistence | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to persist session state. |
Stripe M | 2 years | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. |
Stripe MID | 1 year | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Stripe SID | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It is used by the Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | This cookie is used for load balancing services provded by Amazon inorder to optimize the user experience. Amazon has updated the ALB and CLB so that customers can continue to use the CORS request with stickness. It is used by Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google NID | 6 months | NID cookie is a third party cookie automatically placed by Google services. To opt-out please visit https://adssettings.google.co.uk |
These cookies are used by the GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. They only store whether the user has opted in or out of other categories. They do not store any personal data.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cookie Consent: Analytics | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Necessary | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Necessary". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Others | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Others". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Performance | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Performance". It does not store any personal data. |