"Access to Information Related to Specific Government Clients"
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] On the 8th (local time), AP News and others reported that FireEye, a major American cybersecurity company, was subjected to a hacking attack believed to be carried out by a specific nation-state.
According to the report, Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye, stated in a press release that there was an "attack by a nation with top-tier offensive capabilities," and that the attackers infiltrated FireEye's network and accessed information related to government clients, including federal, state, and local agencies in the United States. He emphasized that there is no evidence that customer information was taken from their systems, but added, "This hacking incident is different from the tens of thousands of incidents we have experienced so far."
FireEye is a security company serving numerous government agencies, manufacturers, financial institutions, and technology companies within the US and allied countries. FireEye revealed that hacking tools internally maintained to assess the security status of their clients were stolen. So far, there is no evidence that these tools have been used since the breach. FireEye is currently investigating the hack in cooperation with the FBI and Microsoft (MS), and has prepared response measures to protect its clients.
This hacking incident is considered one of the most serious security breaches in recent times. Matt Gorham, Deputy Director of the FBI Cyber Division, stated, "Initial investigations suggest that the hacking entity possesses nation-state level sophistication." Experts have pointed out that FireEye has been at the forefront of investigating Russian hacking groups, suggesting that this incident may have been carried out by Russia.
Following the news of the hack, FireEye's stock price fell about 7% in after-hours trading.
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