Russians break into US government again

Once again, attackers from Russia have broken into the US government. That’s what the US Secretary of Defense says. This time, the hackers allegedly hacked into a non-confidential part of the US Pentagon.

Last fall, Russian attackers allegedly broke into the US White House and State Department. Now Russian attackers have broken into the US government again.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed the new hack during a presentation at Stanford University. This is reported by Reuters news agency. The attackers, who according to Carter are from Russia, would have gained access to an “unclassified” part of the Pentagon’s network, the US Department of Defense.

On Sunday, it emerged that Russian attackers may have broken into the US government again using so-called zero-day vulnerabilities. This may also involve the hack of the Ministry of Defense, but that is not clear.

The Russians allegedly exploited an old vulnerability that the Pentagon had not yet patched. Carter did not reveal in which system the vulnerability was located. It regularly happens that vulnerabilities that have already been patched can still be exploited, because consumers as well as companies and organizations are often slow to update their software. That this is happening at the US Department of Defense, however, is remarkable.

According to Carter, however, the ministry acted quickly to limit the impact of the hack. “It’s worrying that they were able to break into a non-confidential part of our network, but we quickly detected the hack and set up a team within 24 hours to track down the culprits,” Carter said.