government has since stated that Russian intelligence is likely behind the attack, although Russian officials have denied being involved.ĭuring the attack, CISA didn’t have an alternative communication system in place to use when its usual network used for email and data communication, including incident response, was compromised, according to the report. The breach happened via malicious code in software updates for SolarWinds products, allowing perpetrators to gain intelligence within companies and government agencies. “CISA improved its ability to detect and mitigate risks from major cyberattacks, but work remains to safeguard federal networks. “CISA coordinates federal agencies’ defense against cyberattacks, but the SolarWinds response revealed that CISA did not have adequate resources - backup communication systems, staff or secure space - to effectively respond to threats,” the report said.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency still hasn’t fixed key planning and resource gaps that hindered its ability to respond to the SolarWinds hack, like having a plan for backup communication systems in the case of an attack on the main network, according to a new watchdog report.ĬISA, which is the government’s main cybersecurity agency, lacked such a plan during the fallout of the discovery of the SolarWinds breach in 2020, leaving it to “improvise” when its unclassified network for email and data was compromised.

Solarwinds traffic analyzer