Washington
Hackers broke into the networks of the Treasury and Commerce Departments as part of a months long global cyberespionage campaign revealed on Sunday. This came just days after the prominent cybersecurity firm FireEye said it had been breached in an attack that industry experts said bore the hallmarks of Russian tradecraft.
In response to what may be a large-scale penetration of US government agencies, the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity arm issued an emergency directive calling on all federal civilian agencies to scour their networks for compromises.
The threat apparently came from the same cyberespionage campaign that has afflicted FireEye, foreign governments and major corporations, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating.
“This can turn into one of the most impactful espionage campaigns on record,” said cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch.
News of the hacks, first reported by Reuters, came less than a week after FireEye disclosed that foreign government hackers had broken into its network.— AP
