Security News > 2020 > December > SolarWinds Claims Execs Unaware of Breach When They Sold Stock
Texas-based IT management and monitoring solutions provider SolarWinds told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its executives were not aware that the company had been breached when they decided to sell stock.
Just days before the hack came to light, the firm's two biggest investors, Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo, sold more than $280 million in stock to a Canadian public pension fund.
While SolarWinds initially did not respond to requests for comment on the suspicious timing of the stock sales, the company told the SEC in a filing that "All sales of stock by executive officers in November were made under pre-established Rule 10b5-1 selling plans and not discretionary sales."
It's worth noting that Equifax also claimed that its executives were not aware of the massive breach suffered by the company in 2017 when they sold stock, but it later turned out that insider trading did take place.
Shortly after the SolarWinds breach came to light, several people said the attack seemed to be the work of Russian cyberspies, which U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to confirm on Friday.