The Solar Winds hack

SolarWinds’ cyber-security problem has been one of the biggest that the industry has suffered, as it is believed to have affected more than 18,000 customers in the US and the rest of the world.

The hackers have been very clever and well thought out, introducing a “back door access” to a SolarWinds cyber-security program called Orion that is used by almost all of its customers.

When the new updated version of the Orion program was distributed to customers, hackers were able to enter into the information held by those customers through that “door”. And in reality what they have done has not been a hack in the form of an attack but rather an espionage (obtaining information from others without them knowing).

This operation lasted several months, and if it was not for the FireEye company that notified the North American authorities that their systems had been infiltrated, the hackers would still continue obtaining information.

The companies and organizations affected are of all kinds (most of them North American) and some very important.

It will be very difficult to know the information they have managed to obtain, and regenerating the system with adequate security will cost a lot, since they will have to start almost from scratch, to ensure that there is no other back door open to espionage in the future.

Although the Americans have complained that there were “Russian agents” behind this attack, this is something that can never be proven. And the “problem” is that hacking and computer espionage is something practiced by almost everyone to access the confidential information of others.

Precisely the USA is the one that invest the most money in these technologies and those that have the most means to use them. The NSA’s budget is the largest of any intelligence agency and controls everything she can.

We can remember that in 2014 Edward Snowden reported that the NSA obtained information from more than 190 countries, including the IMF, the World Bank and other international agencies.

Most likely, after this important cyber-security failure, the current security protocols will be rethought, and there will be more emphasis on the “defense” of the information that is possessed, than on the “attack” to obtain additional information.

In this world of security and espionage, no one is innocent, and it is hypocritical to criticize others (the Russians) for doing the same thing that they (the Americans) do.

For mere mortals (like me) who are simply low-level computer users, this type of operation is totally out of our reach and we can only comment on it out of mere curiosity.