The more details that come out, the worse this hack on the US government is getting
How’d they do it? In simple terms, the hackers managed to infiltrate some very trusted software while it was being developed. They added malicious code undetected then the trusted software was deployed as normal. Once it was running on government networks, the malicious software was activated and started sending data back to the hackers camouflaged by the trusted software’s name.
US government agencies and branches of the military have all been infiltrated. Major Fortune 100 companies are also on the list.
President Donald Trump hasn’t addressed this at all. Incoming President Joe Biden is going to need to deal with this.
Spend your holiday downtime cleaning up your digital life
Change your passwords or, even better, start using a password manager
- Try 1Password, LastPass or Dashlane. All are great services.
- Don’t reuse the same password over and over. At bare minimum have at least three passwords – your email password, a different password for important services, then a password for less important services.
Turn on 2 Factor Authentication on your email account.
- Remember that if someone can get into your email, they can then reset any account on any service where you use that email address.
- You should use 2 Factor Authentication on any service that allows it.
Make sure your files are backed up.
- Look into services such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox to store copies online.
- Get an external hard drive, fill it up, and store it somewhere secure that’s not your house.
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