“Several” US federal government agencies have been hit in a global cyberattack that exploits a vulnerability in widely used software.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “is providing support to several federal agencies that have experienced intrusions.”
It’s a spree of the largest computer systems.
This week, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said that “sensitive personal and financial information,” including health billing records, may have been stolen in the hack.
Georgia’s state-wide university system confirmed it was investigating the “scope and severity” of the hack. It affects 40,000 people.
A Russian-speaking hacking group known as CLOP last week claimed credit for some of the hacks, which have also affected employees of the BBC, British Airways, oil giant Shell, and state governments in Minnesota and Illinois, among others.
In addition to the Russians, other groups may now have access to software code needed to conduct attacks.
The ransomware group had given victims until Wednesday to contact them about paying a ransom, after which they began listing more alleged victims from the hack on their extortion site on the dark web.
