Hackers Behind SolarWinds Attack Gained Access To Emails Of US Prosecutors - Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2021) The hackers responsible for the 2020 SolarWinds attack were also able to obtain access to emails of employees working for the United States attorneys' offices, the US Justice Department said.

The hacker group, which Washington alleged had ties to the Kremlin, is believed to have had access to compromised accounts from May 7 to December 27 last year, the department said. The obtained data included all sent, received, and stored emails and attachments found within hacked accounts during that period.

The list of the affected attorneys' offices included those located in several districts of California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The most number of compromised accounts was detected in New York.

"While other districts were impacted to a lesser degree, the APT [Advanced Persistent Threat] group gained access to the O365 email accounts of at least 80 percent of employees working in the U.S. Attorneys' offices located in the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of New York," the statement reads.

US intelligence agencies said in early January that Russia was likely behind a mass cyberattack on US tech companies and government agencies in December 2020. The attackers used IT management software SolarWinds to gain access. Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the cyberattack.