Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith delivered a speech at the Web Summit 2017 in Lisbon on November 8, 2017. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP via Getty Images)
TO Newsroom
UPDATE 2:30 PM PT – Monday February 15, 2021
Microsoft’s president said the SolarWinds hack was the biggest the world has ever seen. In an interview on Sunday, Brad Smith said the malicious operation would require more than 1,000 engineers.
The hackers allegedly breached the SolarWinds software, giving them access to various companies and government offices. The US government said Russian criminals are the likely culprits and added the hack intended to collect data rather than destroy it.
FILE – This August 4, 2009 file photo shows the United States Chamber of Commerce building in Washington. The White House said a senior national security officer is leading the US response to a massive breach of government services and private companies discovered late last year. (AP Photo / Manuel Balce Ceneta, File.)
Smith said malware was installed via a company-wide update.
“I think from a software engineering perspective it is reasonable to say that this is the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen,” said Smith. “When that update went to 18,000 organizations around the world, so did this malware.”
Cybersecurity experts are trying to determine the full extent of the attack and said it will be difficult to completely remove the undercover officers from the system.