The US Coast Guard is urging port sector organizations to inform them if they have undergone a massive SolarWinds monitoring breach that has compromised the computer networks of about 18,000 public and private sector enterprises worldwide since spring 2020. High-profile victims included the US Treasury Department, NATO, the UK government and Microsoft.
In December 2020, the monitoring system breach was publicly exposed by cybersecurity company FireEye, which discovered that its own systems had been compromised, and the traces of the breach led to a software update for SolarWinds. In carrying out the attack, the United States suspects a group of hackers known as APT29 or the Cozy Bear, which is allegedly linked to Russian intelligence.