US government agencies hacked by suspected Russian hackers

The US Treasury which is responsible for engraving and printing United States Dollars (USD) has been targeted by suspected Russian hackers along with departments of Homeland Security, State, Defence, and Commerce.According to the Washington Post, “It is unclear what information has been stolen or exposed in the hack, but the attackers have been monitoring networks since March and were active as recently as Sunday.”

The Russian government has denied the claims that they are behind this sophisticated cyber-attack and have termed the accusations as “baseless”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia had “nothing to do with” the hacking.

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Technology firm SolarWinds, the key stepping stone used by the hackers, said up to 18,000 of its customers had downloaded a compromised software update that let hackers spy on businesses and agencies for almost nine months.The US issued an emergency warning on Sunday, ordering government users to disconnect SolarWinds software that it said had been compromised by "malicious actors".