Welcome to the new world. Maybe Einstein was wrong after all. The next World War might not be fought with sticks and stones but instead, with weaponized computer codes that hack government, military, and business systems and take control of satellite systems and weaponry. Global investments in high-level flying machines may, therefore, soon become obsolete anachronistic relics.
When a private cybersecurity firm, FireEye, recently alerted American intelligence that it was the target of a serious hack by nation-state operatives, the bells went off. It was described as a highly sophisticated attack that had evaded layers of defenses. Since then, the attack has been attributed to the Russians (they deny it) and assessments of the scope of the damage have been underway. Even though United States officials did not detect the attack until recent weeks, it now appears to have been underway for months.
As that gravity assessment continues, the government says that the Defense Department, Treasury, intelligence agencies, Department of Energy, nuclear labs and Fortune 500 companies use software found to have been compromised by the Russian hackers. Per The New York Times, about 18,000 private and government users downloaded a tainted software update that gave Russian hackers a foothold into victims’ systems, according to SolarWinds, the company whose software was compromised.
Read on at The New York Times->
