Report: Second Team of Hackers Targeted SolarWinds at Time of Breach

A recent report claims that a second hacking group was targeting the Texas-based IT company SolarWinds at the time that the first breach of the company’s systems was discovered. The SolarWinds hack resulted in large-scale intrusions into government agencies including the Treasury.

Reuters reports that a second hacking group has been identified in the recent breach of the Texas-based IT company SolarWinds. The hack that was recently reported is believed to be linked to a team of Russian hackers, now a security research blog by Microsoft claims that a second group targeted SolarWinds earlier this year.

Breitbart News recently reported that hackers may have gained access to the networks of the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments by sneaking malware into a recent SolarWinds software update.

SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson said in a statement that the company believes that products it released in March and June of this year were modified in a “highly-sophisticated, targeted and manual supply chain attack by a nation state.”

Currently, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity arm are investigating what many experts believe to be a large-scale penetration of U.S. government agencies. Breitbart News reported more extensively on the hack here.

Now, a Microsoft security research blog has stated: “The investigation of the whole SolarWinds compromise led to the discovery of an additional malware that also affects the SolarWinds Orion product but has been determined to be likely unrelated to this compromise and used by a different threat actor.”

Security experts informed Reuters that the second hack is known as “SUPERNOVA” and is a piece of malware that imitates SolarWinds’ Orion product but is not “digitally signed” like the other attack that was hidden in a SolarWinds’ software update was. This suggests that the second hacker group did not have the same access to SolarWind’s internal systems.

It is currently unknown if SUPERNOVA has gained access to any of SolarWinds’ customer’s systems.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com