CHINESE HACKERS USED SOLARWINDS TO SPY ON U.S. PAYROLL AGENCY

Suspected Chinese hackers exploited a flaw in software made by SolarWinds Corp. to help break into US government computers last year, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters, marking a new twist in a sprawling cybersecurity breach that US lawmakers have labeled a national security emergency.

Two people briefed on the case said FBI investigators recently found that the National Finance Center, a federal payroll agency at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), was among the affected organizations, raising fears that data on thousands of government employees may have been compromised, Christopher Bing, Jack Stubbs, Raphael Satter and Joseph Menn reported for Reuters.

The software flaw exploited by the suspected Chinese group is separate from the one the US 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.

Security researchers have previously said a second group of hackers was abusing SolarWinds’ software at the same time as the alleged Russian hack, but the suspected connection to China and ensuing US government breach have not been previously reported.

Reuters was not able to establish how many organizations were compromised by the suspected Chinese operation. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing investigations, said the attackers used computer infrastructure and hacking tools previously deployed by state-backed Chinese cyberspies.

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