OREANDA-NEWS. Microsoft Corporation, having conducted a large-scale investigation, said that the Russians are behind the «Sunburst» hacker attack, which is called the most dangerous cyber attack in the history of America. Other tech companies agree with these conclusions. This was announced on Tuesday, February 23, by Microsoft Corporation President Brad Smith during a hearing in the US Senate Intelligence Committee.

«We found substantial evidence, that led us to Russian intelligence, and we found no evidence, that led us anywhere else», Smith said. According to him, at least 1,000 «highly qualified» programmers should have been involved in the development of the code, that allowed the introduction of «SolarWinds» into the systems of the Texas-based company, which began the cyber attack. This scale indicates the involvement of government agencies. «We have never seen such sophistication combined with such scale», the Microsoft CEO added.

According to reports, in March 2020, attackers penetrated the systems of «SolarWinds». It produces software for the management and security of computer systems. At the same time, «SolarWinds» was not a target for hackers, but only a path to deliver malicious software to the computers of American government agencies, which were hit.

«SolarWinds» reported, that 18 thousand recipients managed to download the infected software. The tactics chosen by the hackers — to infiltrate the systems of the victims of the attack under the guise of an update from a well-known software manufacturer — allowed them to operate unnoticed in the computers of dozens of state institutions for almost 8 months.