Hack

Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said hacking accusations may spoil Kremlin ties with Biden before he even takes office.

The attorney general sided with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in saying the Russians were apparently responsible for the massive cyberattack.

"There was minimal security leadership at the top," said the cybersecurity expert, who left SolarWinds after giving his warning.

The Republican senator described the SolarWinds cyberattack—which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and top GOP lawmakers blame Russia for—as "extraordinary." The president has downplayed it.

President Donald Trump has downplayed the threat from the SolarWinds cyberattack and attempted to cast doubt on Russia's involvement.

On Saturday the president tweeted that the cyberattack was "far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality" but could have affected "our ridiculous voting machines."

"Our nation is under assault. This cyberattack could be the largest in our history," Colorado Congressman Jason Crow wrote in a tweet.

Even as critical government agencies acknowledged their computer systems appeared to have been affected, the president has continued to tweet about an election he had already lost.

The fallout from the cyberattack via Texas-based software company SolarWinds appears to be vast, with a slew of powerful U.S. government agencies and businesses, seemingly targeted.

"CISA expects that removing this threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging for organizations," the agency under the Department of Homeland Security warned.

The National Defense Authorization Act "will not be the last congressional action needed before this is resolved," Thomas Bossert wrote.

The former homeland security adviser has said the Biden administration should "assume that any government data or email could be falsified."

"You can't trust electronic communications right now in the unclassified side," former White House Chief Information Officer Theresa Payton warned.

"Fxmsp," real name Andrey Turchin, is believed to have advertised the sale of access to the network computers of over 300 different corporate entities located in dozens of countries around the world.

Although the issue was fixed in November 2019, it raises questions about the company's security safeguards.

The company removed a webpage touting its many Fortune 500 clients "as a courtesy to our customers."

"I guarantee you, by the time it's done, it will be far worse than what we think it is right now," said Mark Wright of cybersecurity firm Sentinel One.

SolarWinds says on its website its products are currently used by more than 300,000 customers, spanning military, government, business giants and educational institutions.

The term "ParlerHacked" became a trending Twitter topic in the U.S. amid baseless speculation that messages from Parler's high-profile users could have been compromised.

"I felt like somebody had just sexually attacked us," Devon Morales, the mother of one of the students in the class, told WLNY News in New York.

China's U.K. embassy has suggested that "anti-China elements" were involved in diplomat Liu Xiaoming 'liking' several offending tweets, one of which included pornographic content.

One subreddit posted a tweet by someone claiming to be responsible for the hack, allegedly named "calvin goh and Melvern." In a tweet, the hackers threatened to hack r/worldnews and r/pics. It also threatened violence against a Chinese Embassy.

"This incident is a dark chapter in our exchange's history, and we are pleased to offer this reward as further evidence of our determination to obtain the lost property," Bitfinex said.

A 17-year-old from Tampa has been identified as the mastermind behind a Twitter hack that scammed over $100,000 in bitcoin. Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed 30 felony charges against the teen, who will be tried in Florida as an adult.

"We feel terrible about the security incident that negatively affected the people we serve and their trust in us. Security doesn't have an endpoint, it's a constant iteration," Jack Dorsey told investors.

The company said the investigation was still underway, but most affected users should have access to their Twitter accounts now.

The New York Times reported that a 19-year-old from the south of England was involved in the hack of notable public figures.

The social network's security team is continuing to analyze the scope of the cyberattack believed to have exploited an internal system accessed by a "coordinated social engineering attack."

"If you can reset passwords and tweet as the person I can't see why messages would be off limits," one cybersecurity expert told Newsweek.

Twitter's security team says "significant steps" have been taken to limit access to its backend systems after an unprecedented cyberattack blamed on a "coordinated social engineering attack."