On Tuesday, one of the leading cybersecurity firms, FireEye
said that it has been attacked by "highly sophisticated"
state-sponsored hackers who stole the company's valuable hacking
tools used for testing customers' security and computer networks.
The attack was heavily customized to breach FireEye's
systems.
The breach substantiated the biting reality that the most advanced
security vendors out there, primarily to protect others from
intrusions can also be targeted and consequently hacked. Notably,
the attacker mainly sought data of some government customers, using
an unprecedented combination of tactics, according to the firm. CEO
Kevin Mandia in his blogpost characterized the attack as a 'highly
targeted cyberattack', a kind never witnessed before. So far, no
customer data seem to be accessed by the attackers.
There are a number of speculations about who might have
performed the attack, however, the firm gave no clarity about the
origins of the attackers and is investigating the matter along with
the FBI. In a similar context, Mandia indicated in his blog post
that the nation responsible for the attack is someone with
world-class offensive capabilities as the unfamiliarity of the
attack speaks volumes about the top-notch capabilities tailor-made
to attack FireEye.
On the basis of his 25 years of experience in cybersecurity, Mr.
Mandia further said in his Saturday's blog that this attack was
“different from the tens of thousands of incidents we have
responded to throughout the years,” and “used a novel combination
of techniques not witnessed by us or our partners in the
past.”
“These tools mimic the behavior of many cyber threat actors
and enable FireEye to provide essential diagnostic security
services to our customers,” the company said in the filing.
“Consistent with our goal to protect the community, we are
proactively releasing methods and means to detect the use of our
stolen Red Team tools.”
While giving insights, a CISA spokesperson told, "As details are
made available we are working to share and implement
countermeasures across the federal networks and with our private
sector partners,"
Meanwhile, FireEye has been said to have a "ringside seat" for some of the most advanced intrusions carried out globally by Mike Chapple, a former NSA official who's currently working at the University of Notre Dame as a cybersecurity expert.
Read more https://www.ehackingnews.com/2020/12/us-cybersecurity-company-fireeye-hacked.html
