Security News > 2020 > December > Trump administration says Russia behind SolarWinds hack. Trump himself begs to differ
United States secretary of state Mike Pompeo has laid the blame for the SolarWinds hack on Russia, but his boss begs to differ.
The Associated Press reports that the White House was set to issue a Friday afternoon statement describing Russia as "The main actor" behind the incident, but that staff were told to stand down instead. At the time of writing the State Department, National Security Agency, White House, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and president Trump all appear not to have attempted to reconcile the administration's conflicting view on the incident.
While the Trump administration sorts itself out, it has something new to consider: Microsoft says another attacker took a bite out of SolarWinds in 2019, meaning US government targets could have been in trouble for six months before the attacks divulged last week.
Microsoft says the 2019 hack allows attackers to "Follow the standard playbook of privilege escalation exploration, credential theft, and lateral movement hunting for high-value accounts and assets."
As we know, the 2020 attack on SolarWinds led to attackers gaining access to the US government departments of State, Treasury, Homeland Security, and Commerce - among 18,000 known victims.