U.S. cybersecurity warns federal agencies of ransomware attacks

Several federal agencies were warned by the U.S. cybersecurity agents on Thrusday that they were being targeted by ransomware attacks.

U.S. cybersecurity experts issued a warning on Thursday after discovering that several federal agencies had been the target of a ransomware attack that appeared to be a part of a large-scale, coordinated effort to exploit software vulnerabilities.

According to a press release from Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, support is being given to the organizations that have had to deal with these impositions.

The agency's MOVEit file transfer software, which encrypts files and uses secure File Transfer Protocols (FTPs), automation, and analysis to transfer large volumes of data, was impacted by the intrusions, according to Goldstein.

According to CNN, it was not immediately clear if the hackers who broke into the federal agencies belonged to the same ransomware group that has taken credit for other victims of the hacking campaign.

The vulnerability in widely used email security technology, Barracuda ESG appliances, according to new research and findings published by cybersecurity company Mandiant on Thursday, may have been exploited by Chinese hackers with the support of the Chinese government. This vulnerability allowed the hackers to access the networks of potentially hundreds of public and private sector organizations worldwide.