"Exclusive: Suspected Chinese Hackers Used SolarWinds Bug to Spy on U.S. Payroll Agency – Sources"
Security researchers have found that Chinese hackers exploited a flaw in SolarWinds Corp's software to help break into U.S. government computers last year. The attackers used computer infrastructure and hacking tools previously deployed by state-backed Chinese cyberspies. The software flaw exploited by the suspected Chinese group is separate from the one the United States has accused Russian government operatives of using to compromise up to 18,000 SolarWinds customers, including sensitive federal agencies, by hijacking the company's Orion network monitoring software. The researchers found that the National Finance Center (NFC), a federal payroll agency inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was among the affected organizations, raising fears that data on thousands of government employees may have been compromised. It is unknown what information the attackers were able to steal from the National Finance Center (NFC) or how deep they burrowed into its systems. However, former U.S. government officials say the potential impact could be massive. The NFC is responsible for handling multiple government agencies' payroll, including several involved in national security, such as the FBI, State Department, and Homeland Security Department. Records held by the NFC include federal employee social security numbers, phone numbers, personal email addresses, and banking information. The NFC services more than 160 diverse agencies, providing payroll services to more than 600,000 Federal employees. Tom Warrick, a former senior official at the U.S Department of Homeland Security, stated that this breach could be a severe security breach depending on what data was compromised. The information that the hackers might have obtained could allow adversaries to know more about U.S. officials, improving their ability to collect intelligence.