Officials with the Trump administration are acknowledging the email systems of the Pentagon, State Department and the Department of Homeland Security were all compromised in a major cyberattack that also targeted the Treasury and Commerce Departments, as well as nuclear laboratories and some Fortune 500 companies. The National Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss what has been described as the biggest breach of U.S. government data in years.
The hackers allegedly inserted malicious software into an update for network management software made by the private company SolarWinds, which has 300,000 customers worldwide. The Trump administration has not identified who was behind the attack, but multiple news agencies suggest it was the work of hacking groups backed by the Russian government.
The news comes at a time when the government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is without a director. President Trump fired the agency’s director, Chris Krebs, in November for claiming the election was the “most secure in American history.”