FireEye hacked! Company attacked by foreign government hackers

One of the largest cybersecurity organisations in the United States of America, FireEye was hit by a massive cyber attack. This happened on Tuesday and a report by BBC says that it was done by a group of foreign government hackers. As per FireEye, the attacker had “world-class capabilities” which helps them to break into any network. The most alarming news is that the attackers were able to steal various tools that FireEye uses to test the defences of various customers including federal, state and local governments and major global corporations.

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FireEye hacked by a foreign government attackers

FireEye was hacked on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, and the CEO of FireEye, Kevin Mandia said in a statement that these hackers “primarily sought information related to certain government customers.” Keeping quiet about the name, Mandia said that the organisation has come up with a conclusion that FireEye has witnessed "an attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities." The organisation also mentioned that this attack was “different from the tens of thousands of incidents we have responded to throughout the years”.

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This attack can be said as one of the biggest security breaches in the world. This attack was first revealed by CEO Kevin Mandia in a blogpost. The President of Rendition Infosec, Jake Williams said: “I do think what we know of the operation is consistent with a Russian state actor.” The hackers seemed to be interested in acquiring a subset of FireEye customers like government agencies. However, when was the initial attack took place is still in question. 

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Revealing the details about the attack, FireEye CEO Mandia wrote in his blog post: “We hope that by sharing the details of our investigation, the entire community will be better equipped to fight and defeat cyber-attacks.” It is said that the organisation's "Red Team tools" has been stolen. And Mandia wrote, “We are not sure if the attacker intends to use our Red Team tools or to publicly disclose them.” The organisation is currently seeking help from the FBI and Microsoft.

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