SolarWinds Hack

The SolarWinds hack, discovered in December 2020, was a sophisticated cyberattack targeting SolarWinds, a prominent IT management software company. This supply chain attack compromised SolarWinds' Orion platform, affecting approximately 18,000 organizations worldwide including Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. The attack, attributed to the Russian SVR, demonstrated the devastating potential of supply chain vulnerabilities and marked one of the most significant cybersecurity incidents in recent history.

The attack began as early as September 2019 when threat actors, later identified as APT29, infiltrated SolarWinds' software development environment. The attackers inserted malicious code called SUNBURST into the Orion network monitoring software's legitimate updates. Between March and June 2020, SolarWinds unknowingly distributed these trojanized updates to approximately 18,000 customers. The malware remained dormant for weeks before communicating with command-and-control servers, allowing attackers to conduct reconnaissance and deploy additional payloads. High-profile victims included the U.S. Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, and major corporations like Microsoft and FireEye. The attack was discovered in December 2020 by FireEye after they were breached themselves. The incident highlighted critical vulnerabilities in software supply chains and the need for enhanced security practices including code signing verification, network segmentation, and continuous monitoring.